


Genii Undercover

by CheesyBoi



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25478617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheesyBoi/pseuds/CheesyBoi
Summary: When kids start disappearing from 'Lex Luthor's Camp for Gifted Children' Batman sends in Robin and Kid Flash. They go undercover as Dick Grayson, the mathlete, and Wally West, the science whiz. The two have to maintain their cover as they take down Luthor, save the other campers and evade their well-meaning team. Rated 'T' for safety.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 26





	1. The Journey Begins

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Young Justice  
> Cross-posted from my Fanfiction.net account

The air was suffocating as the large bus rumbled down the old dirt road. Children, aged 10 to eighteen, were all crammed into the metal death trap like it was a giant yellow sardine can. They had come from all over America, each one stuffed into a bus for hours until all of the buses made it to the 'meeting spot'. The 'meeting spot', as it had been creatively dubbed, was an outhouse on an old country road with a dusty bench in front. Then they all had to wait, in the boiling heat, as a singular bus shuttled as many kids as possible through the woods, to the camp. The bus to the 'meeting spot' had taken five hours, the wait for the shuttle bus had been two hours, and now the final bus was scheduled to take another three hours.

Wally was pretty sure that he wouldn't make it.

"You're hyperventilating again." Dick said, glancing nervously at him.

Wally swallowed, trying to even out his breathing. "Sorry. It's just, road trips aren't exactly my favorite, you know?"

Dick grimaced, nodding his head. He knew all too well the claustrophobic tendencies that speedsters had. Combined with the extreme summer heat and the long hours spent stuck in one area, well Dick could understand why Wally wouldn't exactly be happy about this arrangement.

"Remind me, again, why we couldn't have found an alternate way to the camp?" Wally groaned.

"The camp's location is a highly guarded secret. The public isn't aware of where it is."

In other words, Robin knew exactly where the camp was, but Dick Grayson and Wally West were supposed to be as clueless as everyone else.

"Right." He sighed.

Sometimes Wally hated the complexities that came with having a secret identity. He turned to face Dick to tell him that, covertly of course, when suddenly the bus jerked to a stop. All of the children were slammed forward, still following the bus's momentum. Wally found himself flung face first into the sweaty leather of the seat ahead of him.

"Well, looks like we're here," Said Dick, trying to smother his laughter at Wally's situation. He gave up, deeming it a lost cause and openly laughed at him.

Wally scowled as he peeled his face off of the back of the seat. How was the leather already sticking to his skin? He sat back with a huff. That leather could work as a replacement for duck tape. I wonder if someone could stick to walls using only leather?

Wally's head snapped up when the doors of the bus creaked open. This was his chance to get out of this torture chamber! The other kids were still shaken from the abrupt stop, picking themselves off of the floor and unpeeling themselves from the leather seats. He jumped up, grabbed Dick's hand and was barely able to restrain his speed as he bolted out the doors.

Fresh air! Wally collapsed to his knees and kissed the dusty terrain.

"You know, I wasn't aware that was actually a thing that people do." Dick commented as he freed his hand from Wally's. "I think I've lost all feeling in this hand."

"It's a small price to pay for freedom," Wally retorted as he got off the ground. "Is this the camp? It looks like one strong gust of wind would knock it down."

"Well, this is what average summer camps look like, right? And this is, of course, an average summer camp."

"Of course," stated Wally, "How could I forget. 'Lex Luthor's Camp for Gifted Children' is obviously as average as it gets."

The camp was in a small clearing surrounded by the woods. There were ten wood cabins, which stood in a semi circle at the edge of the clearing. Each cabin was numbered 1-10, but two of the cabins seemed to have lost their numbered plaques. In the center of the camp there was a flag pole waving an American flag with a campfire pit underneath. The pit was overgrown with weeds and looked like it hadn't been lit in years.

The rest of the kids made it off of the bus and were staring at the camp with growing apprehension. They were herded away from the bus and underneath a giant sign that read 'Lex Luthor's Camp for Gifted Children'. At least that was probably what it was supposed to say, but it was missing most of its letters and ended up as 'Ex Luhor's Camp for Ited Chilen'.

As they gathered at the front of the camp a counselor stepped in front to address the group.

"Welcome campers! Just a few things we need to go over before you can go off and have fun! So first things first, the woods are off limits. We don't want any campers to get lost, so please stay away from the forest. Secondly, any area marked 'Staff Only' is also off limits to campers. Any camper found in an off limits area will be appropriately dealt with."

Wally and Dick glanced at each other. Those off limit areas were exactly where they needed to go. Although they hadn't been aware that the woods would also be off limits, that might make their plans a little bit more difficult.

The counselor's overly cheery voice continued, "You can sort yourselves into your cabin groups. Four kids to a cabin. Cabins 1-5 are for the boy's and Cabins 6-10 are for the girl's. Curfew is at 9:00. Anyone found violating curfew will be appropriately dealt with. Any questions?"

A young girl at the front of the group immediately raised her hand.

"Where are the other kids?" She asked.

"The other kids?" The counselor repeated, confused.

"There are only 40 of us here. There were 200 of us at the 'meeting spot'. There were 4 groups of 40 kids ahead of us. 160 kids are missing. Where are they?"

"Oh. Well, the camp is divided into different sections to give you all more one-on-one attention. Don't worry though, you'll get the same experience as the other kids. Now, try to pair up into your cabin groups and pick a cabin." She finished, before she walked away down a path leading into the forest. The path was marked with a sign reading 'Staff Only'.

"We should try to get cabin 1." Dick said, eyeing the cabins. Cabin 1 and Cabin 10 were the cabins on the ends of the semi-circle arrangement. They would be the easiest to sneak out of because they weren't flanked on both sides like the other cabins. Cabin 10 was designated as a girls cabin though, so their best option, barring a complete costume change, would be Cabin 1.

Dick grabbed Wally's hand and marched off towards his ideal cabin. He was probably gripping the redhead's hand a little too hard, but didn't feel bad. In fact, he counted it as payback from when Wally had dragged him off of the bus. He wasn't kidding when he said that he had lost feeling to the limb.  
They arrived at the cabin and looked inside. It was small, consisting only of two bunk beds. The walls were plywood and it had no windows. Jutting out between the bunk beds was a tall box. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a hastily made plywood port-a-potty.

"So, I guess I'm waiting to use the facilities until we get back. What's your plan?" Wally said, staring at the port-a-potty with thinly veiled disgust.  
"I don't think we need to worry about it. We should be in and out of here, as long as everything goes well, tonight."

Wally groaned, flopping down onto the bottom bunk. "It might take longer though if all of the woods is a restricted area. We'll have to search it all. Plus that little girl was right, we are missing campers. Who knows where they are or if they need help."

"I don't think Luthor would try anything on the first day of camp. He made this camp to find the smartest kids of our generation. He isn't going to make any moves without testing us in some way. The other kids are probably in identical camps hidden throughout the woods." Dick reasoned, sitting down on the other bottom bunk.

Wally stared at the ceiling, "Makes sense. Smaller groups are easier to control and if something goes wrong in one camp the other four can be relocated. He's not putting all of his eggs in one basket."

The sound of footsteps walking up to the cabin caused the boys to go quite. They stared at the door, waiting for it to open.

Two boys around the same height as Dick walked in. They both had black hair, but that's where the similarities ended. The one boy had dark brown eyes and a slightly crooked nose. It almost looked like it had been broken and then wasn't set right afterwards. His hair was greasy and long, hanging down off his head like it was trying to escape. He had a dark look on his face, and Wally didn't need to be telepathic to know that this kid did not want to be here.

The other boy's gray eyes were hidden behind his thick black glasses. His black hair was cut short and was brushed neatly away from his face. He seemed shy, as he opened his mouth to say something but thought better of if and just stood there in silence.

"Are you guys joining our cabin?" Dick asked.

"It's the only one left," The moody one said. Almost as an afterthought he added, "I'm Micheal," he nodded his head towards the other boy, "That's Andy."

Andy gave a small wave.

Wally beamed, "Nice to meet you! I'm Wally, what categories are you guys signed up for?"

Micheal scrunched up his face. "Categories?"

"Your area of expertise. The reason you were picked to come here. There are four categories, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. They give out scholarships for S.T.E.M. programs to the top five kids in every category. My category is technology." Andy answered while pushing up his glasses. He walked over to bunk beds and climbed to the top bunk, claiming it as his.

"Oh." Micheal paused, still standing in the doorway. "I guess my category is Engineering."

"I'm in Science." Wally stated, before jabbing his thumb in Dick's direction. "This is Richard, he's in Mathematics."

Micheal glanced around the room again. "When are we getting our bags back?"

Dick grimaced, their bags had been taken as soon as they had gotten on the first bus. They had told them that they would be getting them back, but Dick had his doubts. Luthor really didn't want anything to mess up his plan. Most likely they would be searched from top to bottom and placed in a warehouse until they were on the return trip home. If there was a return trip home. That's why Wally and him were here in the first place, kids were going missing from this place at an alarming rate. Luthor had been using his political influence to convince everyone that the missing kids had run away or had gotten lost in the woods. The Justice League was immediately skeptical. Batman launched an investigation, but he wasn't able to collect enough evidence to shut the camp down.

So, It was certainly a shock when Wally and him were unexpectedly invited to the camp. Wally, because of a mini particle accelerator he built for his science fair, and Dick because he was the MVP of his mathlete's team at school. The letter had come in the mail, sealed in wax and trimmed with gold, with 'Luthor' printed in giant gold letters. While Wally's first reaction had been to rip the letter up, throw it in a fire and laugh, Dick had brought the letter to Bruce and had asked him to let Dick run an undercover mission at the camp. At first Bruce had refused, stating that it was too dangerous for him to go alone. However, when they learned that Wally had received the same invitation, albeit torn up and a little charred, Bruce relented.

The Justice League trusted them to complete this mission.

It was a lot of pressure to put on a kid's shoulders, but he couldn't complain when he was the one who asked to run the mission in the first place.  
Dick sighed, running a hand through his hair. He glanced up realizing that Wally was still conversing with their cabin mates.

"So, anyone know what is happening tomorrow?" Dick cut into the conversation smoothly.

"Oh my god!" Andy jumped, almost falling off of the top bunk. "I forgot you were there. Man, you almost gave me a heart attack."

"Yeah, he does that." Wally laughed, happy that his best friend was no longer brooding in the shadows of his bottom bunk. Now that his mind was clear from the panic induced haze that comes with claustrophobia, he was beginning to be concerned for his friend's mental health. The kid had just spent a good five minutes scowling blankly at the wall. Wally was extremely glad that he was also put on this mission. He knew that his young friend just wanted to prove himself but he also knew that Dick is still young. He needed to make sure that the pressure didn't get to him.

With that thought Wally pulled himself up and said, "He's got a point though, what are we doing tomorrow?"

Andy frowned and scratched his head, "I don't know. I didn't get an itinerary."

Micheal also frowned, but didn't try to answer the question. He shrugged his shoulders in the universal sign of I could care less.

"Well," Wally said, sharing a glance with Dick. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow."


	2. The Test

Wally was having a bad day. He was running on two hours of sleep because Dick and him spent all night scouring the forest. Their searching did, in fact, pay off as they had found three of the other four camps, a hidden facility and the cabins that the staff slept in. They had decided to prolong the mission longer than what they had originally planned because they wanted to search the forest a few more times just to be safe. They were planning on sneaking into the facility tonight, which meant that they both needed to get some more sleep.

Unfortunately, they found out fast that the staff wanted them to get out of bed as soon as possible. The campers were dragged out of bed and escorted, cabin by cabin, onto a blue bus with tinted windows. The children were all in a haze from being woken up at an ungodly hour.

Wally himself wasn't exactly coherent until he was sitting on the leather seats of the bus. He jolted up, the horrible memories from yesterday rushing back to him.

"No. No. No. No. No. No. No. I'm not doing this again. Nope. No thanks." He stammered, wide eyed as he tried to get around Dick, who was blocking his exit.

"Wally, you need to calm down," He grabbed Wally's elbow and gently guided him back to his seat. Dick sat beside him and whispered, "I think that they're going to be testing us today. We need to figure out why they want these kids and this might be the best way to do it."

"Right," Wally said, trying to calm himself down.

The bus was soon filled with kids and the doors to freedom were shut.

The same counselor that had spoken to them yesterday stood up.

"Good morning campers! Today we're going to take a little field trip. We'll figure out which of you are eligible for a scholarship. Don't worry though, we'll start our regularly scheduled camp activities after lunch." She was way too happy for this time of day, in Wally's personal opinion. No human could be that cheerful this early in the morning. Although this was Luthor we were talking about. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities for her to be a robot or something. Wally eyed the counselor warily, momentarily forgetting about his rising panic. Wally would need to keep an eye on her.

The bus started to rattle further into the woods.

Wally closed his eyes, his panic now re-surging with vengeance. You'll be fine. Just think of literally anything else. Like running through a wide open field. Yeah, that would be fun. So fun…

Wally drifted off to sleep, the lack of shut eye from last night catching up to him.

Wally suddenly felt a hand grabbing him. In a blind panic he flung his eyes open and swung his arm in the direction of his attacker.

"Woah. Walls, calm down." Dick chuckled, easily dodging his fist.

"What?" Wally said as he glanced around. They were the only ones on the bus. When did that happen?

As if he could read his thoughts Dick answered his question. "You fell asleep before we even left the campsite. You looked like you needed it. We're here now though, so come on."

Dick started walking off the bus while Wally groggily followed.

Their destination was the facility that they had discovered last night. It was a tall, white building that stood out starkly among all of the trees surrounding it. While the campsites were all run down, and the two boys could confirm that the other campsites they found were in the same state of disrepair that theirs was in, they certainly spared no expenses on this lab.

As they walked into the main lobby Wally took note of the pristine white walls and floors. He glanced around the lobby. There was a secretary's desk in the middle of the room and a pure white waiting bench shoved in the corner. Behind the desk there was a metal door with, what looked like, some heavy duty security on either side of it. Retina scanners, fingerprint scanners, two keypads, ect. There was also a side door off in the corner of the room. It was made of glass and had no security, not even a lock. As he was watching the door, a young scientist walked out and started talking with the secretary.

Wally turned his head as he heard his normally stoic friend inhale a sharp breath of air.

"What?" He whispered.

Dick nodded his head at the scientist. At first Wally didn't understand what had shocked his friend but then he saw it. Hanging off of the scientist's lab coat was a name tag. The name tag read 'Dr. F. Dalland' but that wasn't the surprising part. The surprising part was that underneath the name tag was a small yellow and orange symbol. A yellow hexagon with an orange and black striped hourglass in the middle. The symbol for Cadmus.

He had thought that we were done with those lunatics!

Dr. F. Dalland walked over to the huddled group of kids. "Ah. Group E! Excellent, walk this way." He then led them through the glass doors, deeper into the Cadmus building.

Wally glanced behind and noticed that their counselor had stayed in the lobby. She was watching them leave with an unreadable expression on her face. Wally shuddered and faced the front again.

They were led down a long hallway and through many twists and turns until they were eventually told to stop.

Dr. Dalland turned around to face the group.

"There are four testing chambers behind me." He said, pointing at four small rooms the size of a closet. "You will separate into your different categories and line up in front of the appropriate chamber. Once you are in the chamber you will start to be tested. You will have twenty minutes to take the test." He paused, glancing at the kids as they started to line up. "There should be ten kids in every category. The child with the highest mark in each category will be awarded a Luthor scholarship. Begin."

The first four kids in line went into their respective chambers and closed their doors. Wally noticed that Andy had been at the front of the line for his category, Technology, and had smiled at him before closing his door.

Wally felt his heart break a little. He hoped that Andy wouldn't do well on the test. He really didn't want that kid to get mixed up with Cadmus. They were bad news and everything they did, including this, was bad.

Wally and Dick were both 95% sure that the previous kids who had gone missing were last year's winners of Lex Luthor's scholarship program. The top five kids in every category get a scholarship; There were 20 spots in total. Which was the exact number of kids that went missing. They couldn't confirm anything though, because Luthor didn't keep any records of the winners.

Soon enough it was Wally's turn. He stepped into the small, dark room and watched as the door was closed on him. Don't freak out, you're not in a small enclosed area. You're in a field. A field with walls. A very small field.

"Welcome, to the Science based personal assessment." A robotic voice sounded out.

Wally jerked away from the wall with a yelp. He took a deep breath. It was just the test starting. No need to panic. He slowly calmed down. He really hoped that these walls were sound proof.

The test began with the robotic voice asking some really simple science based questions. 'What is Charles' Law', 'What is needed for a functioning gas exchange system', 'Explain the significance of Avogadro's number', ect. The test required that you figure out the questions mentally and then recorded your answer orally.

The test slowly got harder with time though and soon Wally found that he actually had to think hard about what the right answer was. He was almost stuck on a particularly hard stoichiometry question, due to not being given a periodic table. Luckily, he had memorized the periodic table in a song. Wally figured that he looked pretty silly standing in a dark room singing a song to himself. After that he had no trouble, finding his limiting reactant almost immediately and easily setting up the ratio that would solve the equation.

Wally was determined to get the highest marks on this test so that he was the target and not some helpless civilian. He could fight Cadmus off, a civilian wouldn't be able to. So, Wally continued answering the questions to the best of his ability until his time was up.

At the same time in another testing chamber, Dick was beginning his test.

The test began with the robotic voice saying, "Welcome, to the Mathematics based personal assessment."

Dick's test also started off with simple questions, 'List the numbers in the tenth row of Pascal's triangle', 'What is 2076 divided by 53, record your answer to the fourth decimal', 'The 10th term of an arithmetic series is 34, and the sum of the first 20 terms is 710, determine the 25th term', ect.

He slowly found however, that without a calculator or any way to write down his questions he was starting to struggle. Questions that he normally would have finished in seconds, were now taking him a considerable amount of time.

He scowled. As much as he liked math he would have done a lot better if he was in the technology category. Robin was a skilled hacker and was well beyond his years when it came to computer science, but Dick Grayson wasn't. Dick Grayson was a mathlete. So now he was stuck in the mathematics category.

He wasn't like Wally, who was so skilled in both science and engineering that it didn't matter which one he chose. He was significantly better in the field of technology than he was in the field of mathematics.

He sighed as he finished a particularly challenging algebra question. He'd just have to do his best. He would rather that Luthor targeted him. He didn't want to put any civilians in unnecessary danger.

He narrowed his eyes when the doors beeped and opened, signaling the end of the test. He walked out of the testing chamber and made his way over to Wally. The speedster looked ecstatic to be out of the small space and was barely controlling his enthusiasm.

The redhead slung his arm over his small raven haired friend.

"I will never complain about high school tests again. They're bad but at least they aren't done in tiny suffocating coffins." He smirked, lowering his voice. "Did you notice that there aren't any cameras in this hallway?"

Dick nodded. Of course he had. He had also noticed that the computer terminal in the corner of the room that the scientist, Dr. Dalland, had been using looked totally hack-able. But to hack it undetected he would need a distraction and he quietly voiced this to Wally.

His smile threatened to overtake his face as he replied.

"Distraction is my middle name."

Dick scoffed. "You wish, Rudolph."

Wally stuck his tongue out at him as he moved into position. He stopped behind a small group of campers.

He joined their conversation, easily integrating with the group. He laughed as he added his two cents and was all smiles as he regaled the group with his tales. He had been chatting with them for around two minutes when he suddenly stopped talking mid-sentence. He dramatically clutched at his chest, let out a strangled scream and promptly collapsed in front of them.

The teens immediately started freaking out. One of the younger girls started crying, while one of the boys Wally had been laughing with earlier was trying, and failing, to check his pulse.

Dr. Dalland left his post at the computer terminal and ran over to a panel on the far wall. He clicked a series of buttons and the panel opened to reveal an AED kit.

Dick was at the terminal the second the doctor had left and was already downloading all of the available files onto his USB. Regardless of all of Luthor's security Dick was still a bat and as a bat he had a USB and other essential bat-items on his person at all times. He looked over at Dr. Dalland, to check that he wasn't looking his way, and swore when he noticed that the doctor was setting up a fully functioning AED kit beside Wally. He glanced at the computer. It was only 67% downloaded, he still needed another minute. He looked back over to Wally and hoped that the ginger would be able to hold out for that long.

Wally twitched as he heard the start up sequence for the AED. He was starting to rethink his plan of playing dead but he had thought that they would try to give him CPR, not that they would electrocute him! He probably shouldn't have grabbed at his chest, I mean, that was the main indicator of a heart attack.

His muscles tensed as he heard the snip of scissors and felt the cold air on his chest. Oh great. They cut off his shirt. So that they can electrocute him. He felt a cold shock as the sticky gel of the defibrillation pads stuck onto his chest. Wally heard the whine of the AED start to get louder, signaling that it was building up a charge, and he started to panic.

'Dick, I don't care if you aren't done or not. I don't want to die.'

But even as he thought that he stood his ground. He could feel the doctor leaning over him, getting into position, the whine of the AED now a high pitched scream. He could hear the scrape of metal as the paddles were rubbed together.

You better get some good files from this, Rob.

He clenched his teeth, resigning himself to his fate, as the doctor yelled.

"Clear!"

"Wait! Stop!" Dick yelled, running over to the group. "He hasn't had a heart attack." He looked down at Wally, who was still lying on the floor. He nudged him with his foot.

"Wally, get up. You're fine."

Wally's eyes shot open as he gave a theatrical gasp. He sat up and grinned.

"Wow, doc. I don't know what you did but I feel so much better."

Dr. Dalland looked at them in shock, confusion clear on his face. Then his eyes narrowed and he gave them a suspicious glare.

"I didn't do anything. You recovered on your own. It's almost like there was nothing wrong with you."

"You would think that wouldn't you? But I actually have a very serious medical condition. " Wally paused. He glanced at his team mate. "Tell them, Dick."

The blue eyed boy glared at his friend before addressing the doctor.

"He's right, he has… he has delayed syncope claustrophobia."

"Delayed syncope claustrophobia." The doctor repeated in disbelief.

"Yep. He has a delayed response to his fear of small spaces and will typically end up fainting due to his extreme fear. Sometimes even hours after his claustrophobia flares up." Dick continued, lying through his teeth. Hopefully the doctor would buy it. After all he was a PhD, not a MD.

Fortunately, they would never have to know if he bought it or not because right at that moment Dr. Dalland's watch started to beep.

He swore and jumped to his feet, completely forgetting his previous suspicions.

"Okay, kids! We'll let you know if you got the scholarship." He said ushering them out of the room.

"Go back to the lobby! I don't have time to take you, but just go down this hallway."

He then promptly turned and jogged down the opposite way.

Dick frowned as he watched the man run off. What was so important that he left a bunch of kids unattended in a secret lab? Maybe the better question was 'Who was so important'? His Batman sense was tingling, telling him that this was an important clue that they needed to follow up.

Wally, who had been swarmed by concerned campers the second he was on his feet, had managed to escape and had walked over to his side. He winced as he ripped the large defibrillation pads off of his chest.

"We're following him, right?" Wally muttered to him, under his breath.

"Definitely." He responded, trying to stay serious. His face cracked into a smile less than a second later.

"This is going to be asterous!"

* * *

The foreboding face of Batman stared down at the team from the giant holographic screen. The team shuffled nervously, the silence almost painful. They had been called in for what they thought was a mission. Following their typical mission assignment protocol, they had first gotten changed into their costumes before receiving their mission. Although they were all quite fast at changing, in fact it only took seconds for M'gann, it still took them around five minutes to get ready. They then found out that this wasn't a mission assignment, they didn't need to be in costume and that they had just made Batman wait 5 minutes for them. Needless to say, Batman was not impressed.

"Again, my apologies Batman," Kaldur said, attempting to resolve the conflict.

"Well, at least we showed up," Artemis muttered to herself. She had definitely noticed the lack of a certain acrobat and speedster from their little group.

"That is why I called you here," Batman responded, "Robin and Kid Flash will be absent from any upcoming missions assigned to this team."

The team exchanged confused glances.

Kaldur, concerned for his team members, spoke out. "If you will excuse my boldness, what is the reason for their absence?"

"Robin and Kid Flash are on a classified undercover mission for the League. They were the only candidates that would be able to complete the mission while maintaining their cover." Upon seeing the distressed faces on the teens he added. "Under no circumstances will you get involved. This is Robin and Kid Flash's first solo mission for the League and I am sure that they would not be happy with the team interfering."

Batman glared at them, as if daring them to argue, and then promptly cut off the call to the cave.

"Do members of the team often get pulled aside for League missions?" Rocket asked.

"Other than the usual mentor/protege team up, no this doesn't happen often." M'gann replied. She was more than a little bit worried for her friend's safety. She knew that they were both more experienced than she was, but she still feared for them. "You don't think that they are actually the only ones on this mission, do you? There's got to be a League member secretly with them, right?"

"I do not know," Kaldur responded honestly.

"I can't believe that they were sent on a mission and we weren't. They're off risking their lives and we get to sit here in the cave and wait." Conner vented. He was so frustrated with the whole situation. M'gann was upset, Kid Flash and Robin were in danger and possibly without backup, and he himself was angry. He was angry because the Justice League trusted KF and Robin to run an undercover solo mission. Superman trusted them to run an undercover solo mission. What did he have to do to earn that level of trust?

Artemis smirked.

"We don't have to sit here at the cave and wait."

The team turned to her confused.

Artemis walked over to the holographic computer and opened a file.

"I saw Robin looking at this the other day. Apparently, it's a case that Batman had to close because there wasn't enough evidence. Lex Luthor's running a summer camp for insanely smart kids and some of the kids have started to go missing."

"What exactly are you suggesting?" Zatanna said with a smile on her lips. She liked where this was going.

"I'm suggesting that, while Kid Flash and Robin do their solo mission, we solve this cold case. That way we have something to do while we wait for them to get back, we aren't tempted to interfere with their case and we might be able to punch something."

Conner smiled. "You had me at 'punch something'."

"Plus," Artemis added. "We might be able to solve a case that Batman wasn't able to."

As one the team grinned and turned to face Kaldur.

"Well, fearless leader? What's your call?" Zatanna asked.

Kaldur thought for a moment before facing his team. "It would be a shame," He said, "if we had suited up for nothing. Let us put these uniforms to good use. Artemis, download the file. M'gann, get the bioship ready. The rest of you, prepare. We leave in 30 minutes."


	3. A Long Days Work

"This isn't going to work."

"What? It'll totally work! We look awesome." Wally said. His plan was amazing. It didn't matter what Dick thought.

Earlier, when Dick had been downloading all of the available files he had access to, he had also managed to download a map of the building. The map showed that the building was divided into two parts, separated by a steel wall. The first part was every part the reputable company the public thought that it was. They had a series of labs, offices and conference rooms. They used this area to train the interns, test the campers and to hold board meetings. This side, Wally had wanted to call it 'facade' but Dick had argued that 'Harvey Dent' suited it better, barely had any security cameras and it had even fewer guards. The other side, they had both agreed that it would be named 'Two-face', had only two entrance points. One was the giant metal door directly behind the secretary and the other was in the back of the building, surrounded by a troop of armed guards.

They had, or more accurately Dick had, deduced that if Dr. Dalland was actually doing anything illegal then he would be doing it on the 'Two-face' side because the 'Harvey Dent' side was squeaky clean.

So, now they had a problem. They had to find a way to get into that side of the building undetected. And to make it even more complicated they had an hour and a half to do so, if they wanted to get back to their campsite before the bus got back and the counselors took attendance. They would definitely notice their absence.

In a stroke of brilliance Wally had suggested that they dress up like scientists, steal some ID badges and just walk through the doors. Easy-Peasy. No need for any Mission Impossible type plans.

For a lack of a better idea Dick had agreed. They had found an empty lab and picked the lock to get inside. Once they were in they grabbed some lab coats and put them on. That's when the flaws with the plan became apparent.

Like, for instance, that Wally didn't have a shirt on. Dr. Dalland had cut it off when he had been trying to resuscitate him. When the acrobat had pointed this out to Wally he had just shrugged saying something along the lines of "Maybe they won't notice." It was very noticeable though.

He looked like a sad parody of a mad scientist, with his pale freckled torso still spotted with the blue gel from the AED pads and his lab coat covered with unidentifiable green stains. He had grabbed a pair of clear lab goggles and placed them over his eyes, which had given him a wild bug-eyed look.

"I'm pretty sure they'll notice."

"Well, you're not exactly going to be fooling anyone either." Wally retorted. He pushed his goggles up to rest on the top of his head. His eyes were ringed with red lines from where the way too tight goggles had just been positioned. Dick watched in morbid curiosity as Wally's skin cleared itself of the blemishes in seconds. The perks of being a speedster, I guess.

Wally continued. "You look like you're a kid playing dress up." He paused. "Which, now that I think about it, we kinda are."

He looked down at himself. He had grabbed the lab coat with as few mysterious green stains as possible, but the coat was two sizes too big for him. He'd had to roll up the sleeves to free his hands from the excess material and even then it was still obviously large. The bottom of the coat was dragging on the ground behind him, oddly reminiscent of his cape.

"Okay, time for a new plan." He said, shedding the coat. "We need to find an alternate route because we're not going to be getting through those doors."

Wally huffed but begrudgingly agreed.

"What about the vents? That's what you usually do." The half naked speedster suggested. He had opted to leave the lab coat on. He had been getting rather cold without something covering his torso. He had debated about whether or not he should take the goggles too. They were rather tight and they were giving him a headache, but if he needed to run they would be useful to protect his eyes from the wind. In the end he decided that being able to run was more important than whether he got a headache, or not. So he left them on.

"I already checked. They both have completely separate air duct systems. They don't connect anywhere."

Dick walked across the room, placing his coat back where he had found it. As he was walking back over to Wally he noticed a cabinet full of chemicals. It was locked but that wouldn't be a problem for him.

"Hey, Walls." He called directing the redhead's attention to the cabinet. "Could you do anything with these?"

"Well, that depends. What do you want me to do?"

"Melt through the steel wall."

Wally hummed, looking at the chemicals in the cabinet.

"Any Alkali metals will explode if they come into contact with water, but it would be pretty hard to control the size and strength of the explosion. I could make some thermite; It's a mixture of iron oxide and powdered aluminum. It'll explode if it's lit on fire. Actually, it's commonly used in welding because it can melt through steel. I could make enough to burn a human sized hole in the steel wall, but thermite isn't exactly quiet. It would draw a lot of attention."

"Is there anything that could melt through steel without making noise?" Dick said as he knelt down, pulled a lock pick kit out of his sock and started unlocking the cabinet.

Wally stared at the cabinet, lost in thought.

The younger boy gave a small cheer as he unlocked the cabinet. It wasn't hard but he was taking any victory he got at this point.

"So, any ideas?" He asked again, swinging open the doors. He stood up and brushed some of the non-existent dust off of his pants.

"Wally?"

The normally talkative speedster stayed quite, contemplating his choices.

The small bat clapped his hands in front of his friend's face, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Hydrochloric acid." Wally spoke. His eyes widened in realization. "A strong enough solution of Hydrochloric acid would melt through steel." He reached his hand in and grabbed a small glass bottle filled with a clear liquid.

He studied the label, before placing it on the table and searching for more.

"This stuff is way too diluted to work but if I can get enough of it I can concentrate it into a stronger solution. We won't have a lot though, so we can't waste a drop."

"How long will it take to make?" Dick questioned.

"It would take around 30 minutes," He said before smiling. "So, I'll do it in one."

He took off zipping around the lab. He blurred in and out of sight as he gathered equipment and started the process of strengthening the solution.

The boy wonder watched Wally work, a small smile growing on his face. It was always amazing to see a speedster in action.

Seconds later the young scientist sped back to Dick. He was holding a glass spray bottle gingerly in his hands.

"Okay, the second this stuff comes into contact with oxygen it's going to start dissolving everything in its path. So stay out of it's way." He looked up at the ceiling for a second, thinking, before he looked back at Dick.

"How long can you hold your breath?"

"Five minutes." Dick answered. "Why?"

Wally cursed. "Once this starts reacting it's going to start producing clouds of pure chlorine. It's highly toxic. The air filtration systems should take care of it before it gets to anyone in the building, but we're going to have to stand there and wait for the wall to fully dissolve." He picked up a small box from the table beside him. "Then I will need to neutralize the reaction with this so that it doesn't melt through the floor."

Dick furrowed his eyebrows. "Whenever Batman and I need to hold our breath for a long period of time we inhale pure oxygen. It adds another five to ten minutes to the normal amount of time that we can hold our breath for."

Wally scrunched up his nose. "Isn't breathing pure oxygen toxic?"

"Only if you're breathing it for long periods of time."

Wally pulled a small metal canister out of the cabinet. "We're lucky that Cadmus keeps their labs so well stocked." He studied the label, double checking that it was actually oxygen. He had learned to be very careful when working in a lab. He'd had his fair share of lab accidents and, while one had given him superpowers, he'd figured out fast that superpowers weren't the typical result of lab errors. Although, he didn't think Dick would be mad if he gave him the ability to fly or something. Wally shook his head. Bad Wally, if he experimented on his friend he'd be no better than Cadmus.

"Okay." Dick said, bringing him out of his thoughts. "I checked the map and I found a conference room on the 'Harvey Dent' side that's adjacent to a broom closet on the 'Two-face' side. The broom closet has an air duct, so once we get there we should be able to disappear into the vent system."

"Do you have your rebreather on you?"

"Yes. Why? It only filters oxygen out of water, it won't filter chlorine out of the air."

Wally nodded, gathering his various chemicals and grabbing a small tube of glue from the cabinet. "I know, but we only have one canister of oxygen. We're going to have to glue your rebreather to the canister so that we don't waste any. Otherwise we might not have enough."

"Is that glue going to be strong enough to keep my rebreather in place?" The raven headed boy asked. He pulled off his shoe and tapped the sole in a specific pattern. The shoe beeped before opening a secret compartment. The boy wonder searched through it before he grinned and handed his rebreather to his friend.

Wally glanced at the label on the glue. "Well, it says it's super glue and that stuff is pretty strong, right?" He quickly slathered it onto the device and slapped it onto the canister. "I wish I had some duct tape." He complained. "Or some leather."

"What?"

Wally stammered. "For, uh, a cape! Yeah, a cape! I definitely was not comparing leather to duct tape. Because who would do that? Not me, that's for sure!" He finished lamely. Nice cover up West! The mini detective had a bad habit of bringing embarrassing things up at inopportune moments. So, he really did not need Dick to find out about his whole 'sticky leather' theory. At least not until it was tested…

"I thought that you and Barry had a strict 'No capes' rule?"

"A cape for you, obviously. You look weird without one." He looked around the lab, before seemingly finding what he was searching for. He zipped off and was back a second later holding a long black fabric. He tied it around Dick's neck. "There! I fixed it!"

"I don't need a cape while I'm in civvies." Dick retorted, glaring at his overly fast friend. He, however, made no move to take the 'cape' off. "Is the oxygen canister done drying?"

Wally poked it to see if it would fall apart. When nothing happened he nodded his head.

"Wow. This stuff works really well." He smiled. He put the glue in his pocket; It was way better than duct tape and leather.

"Great, let's go then."

Dick exited the lab, sticking to the natural shadows in the hallway. Which was difficult considering that it was a brightly lit, all white hallway.

They, somehow, managed to make it to the conference without being spotted. Although, they had a close call with one of the guards but if he had noticed the two teenagers, one on top of a ceiling fan, the other hiding behind an office plant, he hadn't said anything.

They closed the door to the completely white conference room and locked it. In unison they walked over to the shiny steel wall.

Wally nudged the spotless white chair beside him. "If the other side is all black then we totally missed the chance to name them the 'light' side and the 'dark' side."

Dick grabbed the oxygen canister from Wally. He didn't have time to listen to Wally's, admittedly good, jokes. They had a job to do.

"Try to exhale as much as you possibly can and then breathe this in."

He demonstrated, exhaling and then inhaling the pure oxygen. Immediately, he felt light headed. His vision sharpening while, simultaneously, his peripheral vision blurred giving everything a warped look. It was an unfortunate side effect of the oxygen. He wondered if this would affect his hand-eye coordination. He passed the canister over to Wally who immediately followed suit, inhaling as much oxygen as he could.

Wally marched over to the wall. He swiftly started spraying it with the acid. Thick yellow clouds rose from the steel as the wall bubbled and warped. A small hissing noise filled the air as the steel melted away.

Wally pulled his goggles down, shielding his eyes, trying to avoid the large chlorine cloud. If the chlorine mixed with the water in the eyes it would form more hydrochloric acid, which would cause extreme pain and would make the victim blind. Wait. Did I forget to mention that? He looked over at Dick who was watching the wall melt in amazement as the chlorine loomed over him. Shoot. Wally opened his mouth to warn his friend about the giant yellow gas cloud before he snapped his mouth shut. Right. If I talk I'll lose all of my oxygen. His lungs started burning, causing him to panic.

He watched as the canary colored gas spread further throughout the room. He glanced back at the bubbling wall, the acid had bitten through a large chunk of it now. He couldn't leave his position, if he did he might not be able to stop the acid from cutting through the floor.

How do I tell him to cover his eyes without speaking?

His lungs screamed at him to exhale. His eye twitched from nervous energy. Looks like he couldn't hold his breath as long as he thought he could.

"DON'T GET IT IN YOUR EYES!" He bellowed, before slapping a hand over his mouth. His lungs cooled down, but they wouldn't stay this relaxed forever. Another minute and they're going to need more oxygen.

Dick, for his part, handled Wally's explosion rather well. He dropped to the ground and the army crawled over to Wally. He gave the speedsters leg an irritated punch. How was this not important information to know beforehand? His face seemed to scream at Wally.

Sorry. Wally implied with a shrug.

The acid made a loud popping noise as it started to dig into the ground. Wally quickly threw the base he had been carrying in a container onto it. The white powder caused the acid to steam and crystallize into small white ingots.

The boys quickly scrambled through the jagged hole. They landed in a dingy broom closet, complete with its own set of moldy mops. They weren't safe though, as the thick yellow gas started leaking into the small room.

The young Flash-in-training started rotating his right arm slowly getting faster, until it was just a blur. The wind generated from his makeshift tornado was enough to push the chlorine back through the hole.

They collapsed to the floor gasping for air.

"You," Pant. "Couldn't have," Gasp. "Said that," Wheeze. "Earlier?" The small boy did his best impression of a bat-glare. Which, Wally gulped, was a pretty good impression.

"Yeah," Wally scratched the back of the neck. "That wasn't my finest moment."

"No kidding," The bird grumbled. He stood up and looked through the hole in the wall. "We should probably start moving. That gas could be back any second now." He looked at his watch. "Plus, we only have a half an hour and then we have to get back to the campsite."

He climbed up the shelf, nimbly avoiding cleaning products and stopped just below the air duct. He pulled a small screwdriver out from behind his ear and started opening to vent. He popped it open and climbed inside.

"Come on." He called before he took off, not even checking if his friend was following. Which, he was, just in a much clumsier fashion. He had somehow managed to knock off almost every bottle of cleaning supplies from the shelf.

He maneuvered into the air vent, the oxygen canister attached to his hip clinking against the metal walls.

"Why are you still carrying that with you?"

Wally looked at the canister. "The gauge says it still has some oxygen in it. Also, souvenir." He grinned, even though his friend couldn't see his face.

"How are you not freaking out right now? This is probably the smallest space you've ever been in." Dick questioned.

Wally blinked. "Huh. I don't know. I guess it could be because I'm physically moving? Maybe it's less of a 'tight spaces thing', and more of a 'tight spaces combined with a lack of movement thing'."

Dick hummed.

"You should invest in a Fidget Spinner." He commented.

Wally scowled. "First of all, that doesn't really cut it in the movement department. Second of all, no, just no."

They wound their way through the metal maze in the ceiling until they eventually came to a stop at a grate. Dick had long ago shushed Wally and now he knew why.

Coming through the vent's grate were voices.

Dick reached into the bottom of his pant leg and pulled out a small recorder. He silently pressed play.

Dick watched the events unfolding inside the room.

The room itself looked warm and cozy. Dark mahogany woods, a blood red shag carpet, and a roaring stone fireplace gave the room a relaxed feeling. Dick wondered if the people stationed in the room never got the memo, because they all looked completely stressed out. Dick wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that a seething Lex Luthor was yelling at them.

"-were told to have them ready yesterday! All of them!" Luthor ranted.

"B-but sir," One of the scientists spoke up. "We were only given access to one set of testing chambers. Without all of them available we couldn't test all of the groups in one day."

"Who denied you access?" Luthor said, his voice eerily calm.

"Dr. Emond. He said that they were glitching and that they needed to be fixed." The same scientist spoke. "Actually, most of our equipment has been found to be faulty." He hastily added. "Sir."

Luthor glared at the man. He motioned one of the armed guards over. "Teach this boy some respect." As the guard started to drag the man away he added. "Oh, and add Dr. Emond to the 'collection'."

He turned to a terrified Dr. Dalland. "Did you at least manage to test the final group today?"

Dr. Dalland gulped and nodded his head.

Luthor smirked. "Good. Who are the newest additions to the collection?"

Dr. Dalland grabbed a clipboard from one of the other scientists. "In the category of science, Wally West."

Dick felt Wally's muscles twitch behind him.

"In technology, Andy Hewer. Micheal Grawnis, for engineering. Surprisingly, the most intelligent kid in the category of math for Group E was Richard Grayson."

Luthor's eyebrows furrowed. "As in Bruce Wayne's kid?"

"Yes."

"Excellent. Let the idiot suffer, he was too attached to the child anyway. That man is constantly a thorn in my side. For whatever reason he refuses to make any deals with me. Hopefully, a death in the family will do him good."

What a mystery. Dick thought. What possible reason could Bruce have for not making any deals with Luthor? I'm afraid we might never figure it out.

"Where are the children?" Luthor asked. He looked around the room like he expected them to pop up from behind the chairs.

"The selected children from Groups A to D have already been sent to the main lab. We were going to wait until nightfall to collect the four from Group E." Dr. Dalland nervously squeaked.

Luthor grimaced and turned to one of his guards.

"Do you have any patrol units close to Campsite E?"

"Squad 2-7-3 is in the area, sir. E.T.A five minutes."

Dr. Dalland checked his watch. "The bus should get back to the campsite in ten minutes, so the squad will only have five minutes to set up."

Luthor smirked.

"Five minutes is more than enough time."

* * *

Rocket grumbled to herself on the bioship. After they had arrived at the supposedly 'secret' camp, the location had been displayed in the file they had 'borrowed' from Robin, the team had started to strategize. Getting the civilians out of the area and to insure their safety was their first priority. The second priority was to gather as much intel as possible.

There were five campsites full of innocent children and each one needed to be evacuated, so each young hero was responsible for one camp. However, their sixth member wasn't needed and Aqualad had decided that she would be better suited for 'air support' in the bioship.

She huffed staring down at the woods. So far the mission had been going well, apart from Rocket being sidelined. The team had been able to take down any guards they had come across and free all the children that they had found.

Superboy and Aqualad had already evacuated their camps and had led the children to Zatanna. They were now guarding Zatanna and the children, as she teleported them to safe locations. Zatanna had already freed her camp and she had just finished teleporting them away.

Miss Martian had taken down two patrol squads and she was now leading the children from her camp through the woods towards Zatanna.

'Zatanna, are you sure you are alright?' Aqualad mentally asked, concerned for the young magician. Although she had assured them that teleportation was an easy spell, he doubted that she would be able to teleport all of the children. She already looked exhausted and she still needed to relocate Miss Martian and Artemis' camps.

'I'm just a little tired. I'll be fine though. I can do this.' She assured her leader.

Artemis' voice cut through their heads.

'Somethings wrong. There's a squad of armed men at my camp and I can't find any children.'

Rocket swiveled her head to look out the window. Artemis' camp should be directly below her. She stared at the small clearing, unable to see the squad of men or Artemis.

As she was watching something shiny caught her attention. A metal bus bumped down the dirt road that headed to Artemis' camp.

'I think I know where the kids are. There's a bus heading down the road towards your camp.' Rocket chimed in, eager to help the team.

'I see them.' Artemis replied.

'Do not let the men near the children. Engage them if necessary. We will be there shortly.' Aqualad ordered. He turned to Miss Martian. "The two of us will go and help Artemis. Superboy protect Zatanna as she teleports the children. If she finishes before we get here with the last batch of children, rondevu on our location."

Superboy nodded his head. He would protect Zatanna and these kids to his last breath, if it came to that. Although it probably wouldn't come to that, kryptonians were notoriously difficult to kill.

He looked over at Zatanna. She had gotten a little too pale for his liking. She finished her spell and wobbled on her feet as a child disappeared in a flash of gold light. Superboy reached his arm out and steadied her.

"Thanks."

* * *

Wally ran through the forest as fast as he could. He jumped over logs, hurdled past trees and weaved between bushes. To the non-speedster riding on his back the world probably looked like a blur of mixed up colours but to Wally, life had never been clearer. He loved it when he ran, everything came into focus and it was like he was the only thing that existed in the world. The sounds that the forest should have been making faded out, until the only sounds remaining were the crunch of his feet in the leaves and his sharp intakes of breath.

He dashed through a patch of wild flowers and marvelled at a small bee that had been residing there. It's small wings seemed as though they were the only other things moving in this picturesque reality.

He continued on, catching a small shimmer through the trees ahead of him. Catching sight of the bus he slowed. Wally gently pried Dick's hands from his shoulders and carefully placed the blue eyed boy on the ground. At this speed he almost seemed as though he was asleep, but Wally knew better. The only reason his friend's eyes were closed was because he didn't have a pair of goggles to protect them from the wind. As soon as Wally slowed down to a normal speed the statue-like boy would be full of life once again. But Wally didn't have time to do that.

Wally stepped away. He had a bus to catch.

He jogged through the forest following the bus. He snapped a branch off of a tree in passing. That looked pointy enough.

He ran as close to the edge of the forest as he dared. As fast as he was, human eyes would still be able to see the tell tale blur of a speedster. He sidled up to the side of the bus and lined himself up with one of the bus's wheels. As quick as he could he took his makeshift spear/branch and he jammed it into the rubber of the wheel.

The speed of his jab caused the wood to catch fire and the rubber to melt where the stick had touched it. A small hole formed and Wally watched in fascination as the tire started to pop in slow motion.

He snapped himself out of it as he ran back to his unmoving friend. He skidded to a stop and willed himself back to a normal speed.

The world snapped back as his sneakers smoked, a loud 'POP' signaled that the tire had finished popping, and Dick leaned over and vomited on the ground beside him.

Wally cringed. "Sorry. Motion sickness is an unfortunate side effect when traveling at high speeds."

Dick wiped off his mouth as he stood up. "It's fine. We needed to get here fast, we didn't have time for you to slow down." He looked around. "Where's the bus?"

"Just through those trees. I popped their tire so they shouldn't be going anywhere. They're close enough to the campsite that they'll just walk back, we could probably just grab Andy and Micheal from the woods."

"We'll have to give them some story so that they'll come with us."

"Yeah, I'll leave that to you. You're much better at that kind of stuff."

Dick stealthily made his way over to the edge of the forest. He watched the small dirt road as the bus driver started marching the kids the rest of the way to camp. Wally crouched down beside him, noisily munching a granola bar.

Dick stared at him. "Where did you get that?" He questioned.

"You've been pulling random bat-supplies out of random places all day now and I haven't said a word, but when I smuggle one granola bar into camp, that's when you start questioning things?"

"Woah, Walls. Calm down, it was just a question."

Wally sighed. "I know, sorry. I'm just really hungry and-"

"You're not yourself when you're hungry?" Dick smirked. "Do I need to start carrying snickers bars around with me?"

"I know that you're joking, but yes, that would be amazing." He quickly scarfed down the rest of his snack bar and glanced at the road. Andy and Micheal were, very conveniently, at the end of the line of campers.

The boys moved into position.

Three.

Two.

One.

Dick and Wally each grabbed a boy and dragged them into the forest. They wrapped their hands around their mouths to stop them from screaming.

"Andy! Chill out! It's us, Dick and Wally." Wally whisper-yelled into his ear.

Andy stopped flailing and calmed down, he craned his neck back to look at Wally's face. Micheal also calmed down when he saw Wally, sighing in relief. Dick let him go and Micheal looked at them.

"I hope you realize that we thought that we were going to die. Do you know how cliched that would be? Dying at a summer camp, that's like horror movie 101."

Wally yelped, pulling away from Andy.

"You licked me!"

Andy scowled. "You dragged us into the woods and gagged us! Serves you right!"

"Look, I know this is strange," Dick said smoothly. "But we need you to trust us. We overheard some things back at the testing facility and we have reason to believe that all of us are in danger."

Micheal screwed up his face. "If this is your idea of a joke, it isn't funny."

"We're not joking." Wally spoke, his face completely serious. "We need to get out of here and we need to go somewhere safe. These people-" He shuddered. "You really don't want to mess with these people."

"Why should we trust you?" Andy crossed his arms. "For all we know you could be junior serial killers."

Wally laughed. "I'm pretty much the opposite of a serial killer. I'm an Eagle Scout and I'm a junior honorary police officer. That's why I know that we need to leave this area."

Dick looked over at Wally surprised.

He was lying to that boy's face. He had never been a boy scout and he wasn't a junior honorary police officer. Wally had just lied and it was totally believable! Dick had never been more proud in his entire life.

The boys didn't seem to buy it though, and they got up to rejoin their group.

"Also, I recorded Lex Luthor saying that he wants to 'collect' us." Dick said, pulling out his recorder. "That's a pretty good reason to trust us, if you ask me."

He then pressed play and let the boys hear the evidence themselves. They both shifted nervously as they listened and when the recording was over they went silent.

"Okay. We'll follow your lead."

"Great." Dick grinned. "Because we're going to hot-wire a car."

* * *

Artemis flipped into the air, nimbly dodging the gunfire that rained down on her previous location. She landed in a crouch, her arrow already notched. She released the wire sending the arrow flying into its intended location. It landed at the feet of the man who had been firing at her and she smirked as the arrow exploded, sending the man flying into a tree.

She rolled to the right as an electric baton swung towards her. As it passed by her head she swept her leg out, knocking the wielder of the weapon off of his feet. He landed on the floor with a cry. He tried to get up, but Artemis was on him in seconds. She secured him in a choke hold and tightened her grip as he struggled. She scanned the battlefield as she waited for her target to pass out.

Aqualad was taking on the remaining two men. He was easily moving between the two of them, dodging gunfire and exchanging blows. Artemis never needed to worry about him, he was just as good as fighting above the water as he was in it.

Her eyes moved over to Miss Martian. The troop of missing campers being led by a bus driver had just walked around the bend and were staring, shocked, at the team's battle. The bus driver's hand had moved to the gun on her belt, but Miss Martian had knocked her out before she could grab it. She was now herding to children back down the road, towards Zatanna.

Artemis let go of her assailant as she felt him go limp underneath her. He should wake up in a couple of hours, but he would have a nasty headache and possibly a concussion. Artemis didn't feel bad for him.

She stood up, scanning the campsite once more. Something both Sportsmaster and Black Canary had taught her, always be aware of the battlefield.

Her eyes caught a flash of movement behind the cabins and she ran over to them to check it out. She scaled the one story cabin easily and looked down at the person who was hiding there.

She looked like a normal camp counselor, but from her vantage point on the roof Artemis could see that something was off. The girl was clutching a phone in her hand, whispering nonsense words into it while feverishly looking at the battle. The other red flag was the fact that in her other hand the girl held a gun.

Artemis shook her head. Why did the bad guys have to be so obviously bad? She jumped off the roof, landing point blank on the girl. She crumpled to the ground, instantly out.

Artemis walked back around the cabins, alerting her friends of what she had seen.

'I found a really creepy camp counselor hiding behind the cabins. She was talking into her phone in some sort of code.'

'Then we will have to assume that our cover has been blown. Zatanna have you finished teleporting the children?'

'She finished, but then she passed out. I don't think she's going to be waking up anytime soon.' Superboy answered.

'Then our first priority has been fulfilled. As we have lost the element of surprise, it would not be prudent for us to attack Luthor's facility. We will board the bioship and regroup back at the cave.'

The team begrudgingly agreed. If Luthor knew that they were coming for him, he would be well prepared. It would be better for everyone if they came back later. They handcuffed all of the unconscious men and women that they had fought and dragged them onto the bioship. They would hand them over to the police before they went back to the cave.

The team walked up the ramp of the bioship, happy to have saved innocent civilians and to have taken down as many men as they did. None of them noticed that the counselor that they had forgotten behind the cabins had started to stir.

* * *

Luthor sat back in his chair, deep in thought. Only one group of heroes would be so bold as to attack him in the middle of the day. Those teenage brats. They were really becoming a pain.

Luthor's guards had rushed in earlier, telling him that the camps had been emptied and that all of the men out in the field had been unaccounted for. All but one.

Claira Hethern. The counselor assigned to Group E. She had driven back to the campsite in her Luthor company car and she had noticed the young heroes. She had immediately called security to tell them, in code, that they were being attacked. They hadn't heard from her since, she was probably in the little League's custody.

Luthor wasn't worried though. Let them raid the campsites. Luthor already had the children he wanted, and losing four wasn't the end of the world. As long as none of them made it into the facility everything was fine.

A guard ran into the room.

"Sir, it's Claira. She says that the young heroes have flown away."

Luthor chuckled. They could easily fix this. This barley put a dent in his plan. Luthor didn't know why he had ever been concerned about the idiotic children. He may be searching for the smartest minds of the next generation, but he didn't need to look very far to find the dumbest.

Luthors calm was shattered when another guard rushed into the room.

"Sir! The inner steel wall of the lab has been broken through!"

"What!" Luthor roared. It must have been a ruse. They flew away to lull him into a false sense of security while they had their forces sneak inside. "Give me that phone!"

Luthor smoothed his voice as he started talking to Claira.

"I want you to listen to me very carefully."

* * *

The four boys poked their heads out of the bushes.

"The counselor has her own car. If we can hot-wire it, then we can get out of here." Dick explained to the other boys.

The only redhead in the group nodded. "We just have to make sure that we don't get caught."

The three raven headed boys all looked determined as they nodded their heads in unison.

They silently left the bushes and inched into the clearing. The car parked directly across the field from them.

"Weird." Micheal muttered. "There's no one here."

"Yes, there is." Dick breathed. He pointed to a figure hunched over the fire pit. She was so low to the ground that she almost blended into the tall grass surrounding it. She hadn't seemed to have noticed them, so the boys kept on creeping across the field. They were around five feet away from their destination when she spoke.

"I just wanted to teach children." Her voice cracked. She stood up, sobbing. "I never wanted this to happen."

Her shoulders were hunched and she was fiddling with something in her hands. It took Dick a moment to figure out what it was. She was trying to light a match, she was scrapping it across an old match book she held. Her fingers were shaking as she turned to them. Her mascara was running as tears poured down her face.

"Why did it have to be like this?"

Wally and Dick exchanged glances and they stepped out in front of the civilians. She didn't look hostile, but she didn't exactly look stable either.

"Hey," Wally said, forcing a smile on his face. "Why don't we talk about what the problem is? I'm sure we could solve it. Just talk to us."

The girl ignored him. She scrapped the match against the match book more firmly until a small flame appeared. She held the match in her hands, watching the flame with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this."

Dick's eyebrows furrowed. Why did he smell eggs?

His eyes widened.

Oh sh-

Claira dropped the match into the old, unused fire pit.

* * *

Luthor watched from above, in his helicopter, as one by one the camps exploded in a chain reaction. The brilliant lights lit up the sky, easily outshining the beautiful sunset behind them. The shock waves rocked his escape vehicle and he put out a hand to steady himself. He had built the camp on top of a natural gas spring for this very reason. He couldn't allow any evidence to remain. Even the gas springs themselves had been made to look like fire pits so that any firefighter investigating the explosion would rule the fire as an accident. It would be easy to claim that they had gone to have a campfire and had unknowingly lit a natural gas spring. Hopefully, whichever hero that had broken into his lab had just perished in the explosion. If they hadn't, well, they wouldn't last long in the massive forest fire that was about to erupt.

Dr. Dalland shook from his seat across from Luthor. The man had just blown up all of his coworkers, his place of work and all of his research just to keep it out of the heroes' hands. The only reason that he had been spared from a fiery death was because Luthor needed him to finish his work. He assumed that he would be relocated to whichever lab that all of the children had been sent to. Dr. Dalland gulped. He would have to remain useful if he wished to stay alive.


	4. Couches for Comfort

Red Arrow grunted as he squeezed through his apartment's small window. It was a tight fit, but it was better than walking through his apartment building dressed in his full Red Arrow costume.

He could have changed into his civvies while he was still on the street but he really couldn't afford some random civilian stumbling across him while he was changing.

That would be hard to explain.

Red Arrow landed with a thump on his living room floor. His new living space wasn't much to look at; It was a typical one bedroom apartment, but he had grown unnaturally fond of it. It was his first time living by himself and he was loving the freedom that came along with owning his own house. He wasn't so fond of paying the bills that came along with owning his own house but he could figure that stuff out after he finished his mission to find the original Roy.

Red Arrow threw his quiver onto his couch, shedding the rest of his clothes and equipment as he walked into the kitchen. It was a quaint little kitchen. The cream colored fridge had random magnetic letters plastered all over it and the oven had strange burn marks in various places.

Roy opened his fridge, now clad in only his undershirt and his boxers, and pulled out a slice of his leftover pizza. He stuck his head further into the fridge as he started to chomp on the pizza.

The shelves were laden with different types of ketchup and hot sauces. In the back of the fridge was a large, unopened tub of Ollie's chili. He hadn't been desperate enough to eat it. Yet. Over on one side of the fridge was a small white box that he didn't recognize. He pulled it out of the fridge and opened it. Inside were two red cupcakes, 'Happy Un-Birthday Roy' was scrawled on top of them in white icing.

Roy chuckled, pulling the cupcakes out of the box. This was a little game Robin, Kid Flash and him had running. They would try to sneak into each other's houses and leave 'Un-Birthday' gifts for the others to find. The point was to give as many as you could to the person before their next birthday. If you gave them more gifts than they had given you, then they had to give you a gift on their own birthday. It was a very convoluted game but the three boys had gotten super competitive about it over the years. So far this year Wally had received too many to keep track of, Roy had found ten scattered in various places and Dick had gotten a grand total of one.

It had taken Wally and him months to figure out how to sneak an 'Un-Birthday' gift into Wayne Manor. They had eventually just ended up throwing a pillow, with 'Happy Un-Birthday' stitched on it, through Dick's bedroom window. Roy shivered. The aftermath of that little incident had been terrifying.

He ambled over to the couch, sitting down beside his quiver. He switched on the TV and flipped the channel until he got to the news.

He watched the muted TV, eating his cupcakes, as the local reporters started talking. Some pictures of a forest fire popped up on the screen before they were replaced by giant letters reading 'Explosion at Luthor Lab'.

Roy snorted into his cupcake. This day hadn't turned out so bad after all. He had stopped a few small muggings, he was closer than ever in his search for the original Roy, he had some tasty cupcakes and now Luthor was getting a strong dose of karma. He pulled out his phone to call Dick. He was 86% sure that the cupcakes were his work. The fact that they tasted like Alfred's cupcakes were a dead give away.

He lifted the phone up to his ear as it started ringing.

He glanced back at the television's screen and his smirk disappeared instantly. The text scrolling by at the bottom of the scene informed him that there were 76 missing workers and 28 reported dead.

His mood sobered. Getting revenge on Luthor wasn't worth it if innocent civilians got hurt.

He turned up the volume, hoping to hear more.

"-mourn as the death count raises. Authorities say that a majority of the workers would have perished in the initial explosion and that any survivors of the blast would have little to no chance of surviving the massive forest fire that followed. However, the police have told the public to not give up hope, as the Justice League was quick to arrive at the scene."

The news channel showed a picture of various members of the League at the fire.

"Many are questioning why Luthor built his facilities over a natural gas spring, but Luthor insists that he didn't know it was there. He is adamant that the explosion was the result of an accident. The evidence seems to back him up, as the firefighters at the scene say that the explosion ignited in a fire pit. Parents are relieved, as most of the children had been evacuated from the camp beforehand-"

Roy cursed, putting down his cupcake. It was a camp for children? His grip tightened on the phone that was still ringing in his ear. He wished that he had known about this earlier, he would've gone out to the fire to try to help.

"-but twenty children still remain missing. The Justice League was quoted as saying 'We can only hope that these kids will be found, safe and sound.' The police warn, however, that the chances of the kids being found alive are very slim."

The phone kept ringing. Would Rob just pick up the freaking phone already?

"The names of the missing children are as follows. Margret Adams. Calvin Affelman. Trevor Cadet. Navaeh Denn. Finn Flanders. Susan Gallium. Micheal Grawnis. Andy Hewer. Amy Kelner. Eliza Lemons. Justin Mill. Felicity Nelson. David Panamol. Erik Pike. Harold Ray. Alexis Starr. Simon Tybalt. Elle Vikenson. And Wallace West."

Roy's head snapped up. He stared at the text on the screen in disbelief.

"No."

The reporter continued. "But probably the most heartbreaking among the missing is 14 year old Richard Grayson, the ward of Bruce Wayne. The-"

Roy stopped listening. The phone gripped tightly in his hands.

This wasn't right. They didn't know Wally and Dick like he did, they didn't realize that they had escaped from worse scenarios. They were alive.

The ringing stopped and a click sounded out.

"Hi, this is Dick Grayson!"

Roy sighed in relief. "Oh, thank god. I thou-"

"Please leave a message after the beep!"

BEEP.

The phone slid from his hands, landing squarely on his half eaten cupcake.

* * *

Zatanna slouched further into the couch. She stared at the static playing on the TV. She wished that she could just stay there forever.

She had woken up an hour ago, just in time to hear Batman and the rest of the Justice League yell at them for how 'irresponsible' and 'disobedient' they had been. Even the normally cheerful heroes were upset. The Flash, who Zatanna had previously thought was physically incapable of being anything but happy, looked so depressed that she had wanted to give him a hug.

The team had been verbally reprimanded for around a half an hour. Eventually, Red Tornado had walked over and argued on their behalf. He had said that, other than going on an unassigned mission, they had done nothing wrong. They had gotten all of the children that they had found to safe locations and there was no way that they could have known that the area would explode.

Black Canary had agreed, stating that the team had made a habit of going on their own missions and that they had never had any serious repercussions for their actions before. She argued that this time shouldn't have been any different, seeing as they were not responsible for the events that followed.

Black Canary had managed to convince the League that this wasn't the team's fault, but the team disagreed. They should have counted the children, they should have scanned the area before they left and they should have done more to save those civilian's lives.

The League had left the cave after Black Canaries little speech, leaving the team to wallow in their sorrow. Black Canary had talked to them about how she was going to schedule mandatory therapy sessions with each member of the team starting tomorrow.

After that the team had wandered their separate ways. Each of them going over different 'what if's' in their heads. The deaths of all of the workers and campers weighed heavily on their hearts.

They had convinced themselves that this was their fault, whether the Justice League believed it or not.

Zatanna sighed. She hoped that Robin and Kid Flash would finish their mission soon. She could really use some cheering up and those two always seemed to be able to laugh, despite the grim circumstances.

Artemis trudged into the room and plopped down beside her.

"I knew one of the kids." She said. Her eyes were red and puffy.

Zatanna looked at her. "What?" Zatanna hadn't even been able to look at all of the names. She wasn't able to handle knowing who had died.

"I haven't looked at the names." Artemis said, mirroring Zatanna's thoughts. "But there was an email sent out by my school. One of the twenty missing kids was a kid who went to school with me. Richard Grayson."

Zatanna looked down. What are the chances of that? Twenty kids from all over the United States and Artemis just happened to go to school with one of them? Wait. Twenty missing kids. Why did that sound familiar?

"Artemis, didn't twenty kids go missing from the camp last year?"

Artemis looked unsure. "Yes. Why?" She narrowed her eyes. "You think it's connected?"

"It at least warrants being checked out. What if they had already been taken before we had even gotten there? That could be why we never found any of them." Zatanna theorized, slowly becoming more animated.

Artemis hesitated. "We'll tell the team, but-" She trailed off. "Just, don't get your hopes up Zee."

* * *

Iris sat on her couch wringing her hands.

Why were speedsters always late?

Barry was never on time, always showing up late for work and for his Justice League meetings. Iris remembered that when they had first started dating she had found it incredibly irritating. Now that she knew that every time he was late he had probably just saved someone's life, she had begun to find it endearing. Still, when Wally had first gotten his powers Iris had tried to make him understand the importance of punctuality. But Wally had always followed in Barry's footsteps, even if it made him late to almost everything.

Oh god, Wally.

Iris sobbed into her hands, trying to stop the waterworks. She couldn't let Barry see her in tears, she had to be his rock. The man could be an emotional mess without someone to ground him in reality.

She had to pull on all of her years of being a reporter. Be objective. Learn the facts. Find the truth.

The most important fact to Iris right now was that they hadn't found the body yet. Sure, they had found bodies but not the body.

His body.

Iris knew that, when it came to superheroes, if there wasn't a body, then they weren't dead.

But Iris also knew the reality of the situation. The fact that anyone close enough to the blast would have been incinerated, leaving no body behind. The fact that even if he had survived the blast, the fire's immense heat and lack of oxygen would've killed him within minutes. The fact that speedsters were not immortal and that not even they could outrun death.

Iris sat thinking on her couch for what felt like days.

When Barry came home he sat beside her. Barry leaned into her, she couldn't see his face but she could feel him shake as he sobbed into her shoulder. Iris wrapped her arms around her husband and as she hugged him she noticed the smell of soot floating around them. Iris stared in shock. Both Batman and Barry had been barred from the investigation by the Justice League due to them being too emotionally invested in the case. It was a major conflict of interest. Iris' eyes widened as she realized that Barry had gone to the crime scene anyway.

She cried as she understood why her husband had been late.

Where he had been.

Who he had been looking for.

* * *

Roy narrowed his eyes at the girl standing across the rooftop.

"Where is it?"

Cheshire chuckled. "I have no idea what you are talking about, Red."

"Where is Luthor's base? The main base." He clenched his fingers around his bow as if he was preparing to shoot.

"Now why on earth would you want to know that?" She purred.

"My reasons are mine and mine alone." Roy growled. His face was twisted in pure rage.

She tutted. "Now, now Roy. You must know by now that I'm not just going to give you information. Not unless I know what you're going to do with it."

Red Arrow glared at the villain. He gritted his teeth as he answered.

"I want to- No. I need to get to Luthor. He killed my- I need to make him pay for what he's done."

She tilted her head, curious. "And what will his payment be?"

Red Arrow straightened his back and stared her in the eye. His face now devoid of emotion.

"Whatever I deem necessary."


	5. New Awakenings

Dick awoke to the crackle of fire.

Did he fall asleep in front of the fireplace again?

His eyes creaked open. His head spun as little white spots swarmed his vision. Dick let his eyes shut. He was too tired to deal with this, he should just go back to sleep. His consciousness slowly ebbed away as warmth enveloped his body like a cocoon. Warmth that was steadily morphing into a blistering heat. The crackling in his ear got louder and an odd sizzling sound joined the cacophony. Dick twitched as he became aware of a horrible stench. The smell of sulphur, burning wood and … overcooked beef?

The overwhelming smell triggered a memory and his mind flashed back to one of his first patrols as Robin. Batman and him had been tracking down a serial arsonist and they had cornered him in an old abandoned factory. The arson, an old man by the name of Eren Flint, had, quite literally, fallen in love with fire. 

With nothing else to live for and Batman on his heels Eren played his last desperate card. He doused his clothes in gasoline and lit himself on fire in a final attempt to be one with the flames. The fire had quickly grown to consume him and, shortly after, the entire building. The apartment building sitting beside the aflame factory had caught on fire and audible screams could be heard coming from inside. 

Batman had quickly leapt into the burning building, vanishing into the flames. Robin had been ordered to stay outside because he had been too inexperienced at the time to help but, after the fire had fizzled out, he had gone inside the scorched building to help search for the victims. He still vividly remembered the smell of the decimated wood beams and the acidic stench of burnt hair. But the worst had been the nauseating odour of the charred corpses, it had been so similar to cooked beef that he had refused to eat any form of beef for two months afterwards. 

He would never forget that night, could never forget, the day was practically seared into his mind.

He snapped back to reality as he gagged on the smell that was wafting through the air. His mind sluggishly connected the dots.

Dick's eyes shot open.

Fire!

He blinked the spots out of his vision. He was lying face down on the ground covered by a black blanket/cape. Right, the one Wally had tied to him earlier in the lab. Dick tried to shift into a sitting position only to stop when he heard the floor underneath him groan in pain.

He squinted at the ground below him. The absence of light, due to the thick blanket over top of him, made it hard to discern who it was.

Dick thought back to the events that had led to this. The match falling. The blinding explosion that followed. He remembered lifting his 'cape' to cover himself, the adrenaline making him forget that his makeshift 'cape' wasn't explosion proof like his typical cape was. As he was lifting the black blanket he had grabbed the boy behind him with his other hand and had wrenched him under the blanket.

He stared at the lump under him, his eyes catching the glint of glasses in the dull light. Andy. Andy was the only one who wore glasses.

The boy wonder pushed the blanket off of them and looked around. He immediately wished that he hadn't.

The ground had been stained pitch black by the soot and was mirroring the inky darkness of the sky as endless black smoke overtook it. The air was hazy with smog, which made the world around them look like an old blurry photograph. The only light blazed from the fires that were quickly spreading across the small clearing. They crackled and popped consuming everything in their way. All of the man-made structures that had previously been in the clearing had been flattened by the force of the explosion and now were just fuel for the fire. The trees in the surrounding forest had held up better against the large concussive blast but were now surrendering to the wrath of the flames.

He glanced down at Andy. The kid had been stained a dark grey from the soot and the right lens on his glasses had been smashed. A drop of blood rolled down his face tracking a red line through the soot on his cheek. Dick winced as his eyes traced the blood back to its origin. Just above his eye was a thin bloodied shard of glass. It was hard to tell how serious the cut was due to all of the blood. Dick felt a stab of guilt as he realized that the glass had dislodged from Andy's glasses when Dick had shoved him to the ground.

He nimbly grasped the sliver of lens that was jutting out of the small boy's face. Andy twitched as Dick gently pulled the shard out but otherwise gave no signs of waking up. The wound, now free of glass, started oozing blood at a faster rate. Dick quickly pulled a sterile strip out of his sock and slapped it on. He eyed the cut, it wouldn't kill him but it would scar.

Andy's laboured breathing was suddenly painfully obvious and made Dick very aware of how little oxygen they would soon have.

Dick pulled a bag of smelling salts out of his shirt sleeve. He opened the bag and waved it under Andy's nose.

The small boy jolted up, coughing uncontrollably. He groaned as his eyes opened and his hand went flying to his head. Dick frowned as he noticed the dazed look on Andy's face. The kid squinted as he lazily looked around the clearing.

"What-" He slurred, staring at a particularly close fire.

Dick interrupted him before he could finish his question. "We have to find our cabin-mates and get out of here, okay?" The boy in question still stared at the fires, showing no signs that he had heard Dick. "Andy, I need you to focus. We need to find Wally and Micheal. We need to move."

Andy turned his head to look at Dick but his eyes still seemed to be unfocused. His pupils were wide, almost overtaking his iris, and he seemed to be staring through Dick, as if he wasn't even there.

"Andy." Dick said in a stern tone of voice. Andy was in shock and probably had a concussion but Dick really needed him to be in working condition. He couldn't keep an unresponsive Andy safe and find the other boys. It was one or the other. So, after Andy failed to respond for a third time, Dick pulled back his hand and slapped him in the face.

The boy recoiled, his other hand flying up to clutch at his check.

"You-you hit me!"

"Yes, I did. I'm sorry, but you're in shock. I need you to stay as lucid as possible. We need to get out of here, so stay with me, okay?"

"O-okay." His eyes focused on Dick's and he shakily nodded his head.

"We need to find Wally and Micheal. They couldn't have gone far." Well, Wally could have. Wally could have gone very far, but Dick knew that he wouldn't have just run off and left them to die. He had probably just gotten the closest civilian, Micheal, away from the blast.

Probably.

There was also the chance that Wally hadn't reacted fast enough and that Micheal and him were now dead.

Andy wobbled as he stood up. His breathing slowly morphing into wheezing and he started to sporadically cough.

"You need to stay low to the ground." Dick chided. He pulled Andy down into a crouching position. "The smoke rises, remember? All of the breathable air is going to be down here."

The grey-eyed boy nodded. Dick headed off toward where the other boys had been standing and gingerly avoided stepping on a pile of glowing embers. Andy steadily followed through the thick smoke.

When they reached the general area Andy started gagging.

"What is that smell?" He spoke, in between the spasms from his gag reflex.

Dick inhaled. His muscles froze. That was the smell that had jerked him into consciousness. The scent of burning flesh. Neither him, nor Andy were on fire so the only other option…

He surged forward, heading to where the smell was the strongest. He plunged into a cloud of smoke, going deeper into the fire. His legs protested as the small bush fires he brushed past seared his skin. Dick squinted through the heavy smoke, he could feel his lungs getting heavier with each breath. His 'cape' snagged on random branches as he ran, but Dick didn't have time to untie the damned thing. He couldn't see very far through the black smog ahead of him and the flickering fires would cast shadows in odd directions, so he couldn't rely on his sight. Instead he followed his nose to the source of the ghastly smell.

He could hear Andy coughing behind him as the small boy scrambled after him into the fiery unknown. Dick was just about to tell the raven haired teen to turn back when he heard him yelp. Dick whirled around to see if he was injured.

He scanned the kid. Andy looked like a black-and-white picture. His shirt, that was once white, was now blotched all over with black soot. The same soot that was now smeared across his increasingly pale skin. His short raven locks were slicked with sweat and plastered across his face in a haphazard manner. The only splash of colour on the monochromatic child was the crimson blood which had streamed down his face, which was now starting to dry a dull brown colour.

He might have looked worse for wear, but he wasn't injured. Well, not anymore than he already had been.

His eyes seemed to be locked on something though and Dick followed his line of sight to see a small bush fire. The bush had probably once been as tall as Dick and ten times as wide, but now it's flames licked the sky as it's charred remains seemed to fold in on itself. It wasn't at all different from the dozen other bush fires surrounding them, so Dick paid it little-

Wait.

Was that a foot?

Sticking out of the bottom of the burning bush was a red sneaker. The fabric on the shoe had already caught on fire and the rubber had started to melt. The flaming branches from the bush were obscuring his view, so he couldn't see anything past that.

Dick's hands shoot up to his 'cape' scrambling to untie it. He ripped it off and wrapped it around his hands. He dodged flames as he got as closer to the fire and, at a speed that would make Wally proud, he grabbed the foot. He grunted as he pulled the sneaker out of the fire, feeling victorious as the rest of the body followed. Dick fell to the ground as he gave one last heave and freed the person from the flames.

Except, the flames had followed them and were now steadily burning through the burn victim's clothes. Dick watched from the ground, in horror, as the flames engulfed the body again, gaining new life as it fed on the more oxygen rich environment.

Before he could stand Andy had wretched the blanket from his hands had flung it onto the flames. Dick lept over and helped him smother the fire with the blanket.

"Oh god." Andy muttered as he patted the body down.

"Oh my god." He cursed as his eyes started to water. "He's not- He can't be-"

Andy made a strange coughing/sobbing sound. A tear ran down his face tracing, almost perfectly, the path that his blood had taken minutes before.

Dick ignored him as he pulled back the blanket. The fire was out and all that remained of it was the heavy smoke that filled the air.

The body was oddly lumpy and misshapen, a giant mess of limbs and blood. His entire body seemed to be out of proportion. What was left of his burnt clothes seemed to pool at his sides, making odd angles and shapes.

It was hard to tell anything though, as the person was lying face down on the ground and was covered head to toe in layers of ash and soot. What was probably once vibrant clothing was now charred black and smeared with grey ash. Dick's eyesight was also getting increasingly hazy as the lack of oxygen was starting to catch up to him.

One of the guy's arms was twisted at the shoulder and was facing the wrong way. The palm was facing up and the elbow was bent down at an unnatural angle. In Dick's opinion it was clearly a badly dislocated shoulder. The body didn't seem to have any sleeves on, or if he did they were now burnt off, and the skin on his arms was a scarlet red colour and had angry blisters all over. The upper legs seemed to be a little burnt too, but the worst injury was on his back. The entire back of what was probably once his shirt had been burnt off and his now blackened skin was flaking off revealing a bloody mess of charred muscles and pus filled blisters.

Dick grimaced. A dislocated shoulder, second and third degree burns, and who knows how much smoke this guy inhaled. The odds weren't looking good. That was, if he was even still alive. He really hoped that this mystery person wasn't Wally, he didn't know what he would do without his best friend.

Dick glared at the ash covered hair, angry that the grey colouring completely covered up the guy’s real hair colour.

Andy sobbed louder as he caught a glimpse of the body. He brought his knees up to his chest, tears flowing as he pulled on his hair.

Dick reached a hand out to the person's neck, hoping to find a pulse. As his fingers brushed against the neck the body made a low groaning sound. Dick's hand jerked his hand away as he watched, amazed, as the dislocated arm started flailing around. It folded the wrong way and seemed to be pushing, aggressively, at its own body. It grasped the edge of its chest and tried to push it off of the ground.

Andy squeaked as he huddled further into himself. His tear streaked face terrified as he watched, unable to look away.

Dick remembered how when he had woken up he had been completely covering Andy. He had done so to try to shield him from the blast. If Wally had done the same…

Dick's eyes widened as he realized that the arm didn't belong to the body over top of it. That's why it had looked like it was dislocated and why the body had looked so misshapen. It hadn't been one person but two, with one completely shielding the other. Dick cursed his foggy state of mind, he should have figured that out the second he had pulled them from the fire.

Dick rushed forward. He grabbed the person on top and rolled them over, wincing as he rolled him onto the third degree burn on his back.

On the ground rolled tightly into a ball, with only one arm free, was Micheal. The black haired boy gasped for air as he uncurled. Micheal looked crushed and the one arm that had been free had second degree burns on it, but the rest of his body had escaped the fire unscathed.

Seeing as Micheal was fine, Dick turned to look at the boy who had heroically covered Micheal, Wally.

Laying on his back he looked fine. Not okay, but definitely not as injured as he actually was. His hair was stained gray from the ash, his normal red color completely obscured. His face was grimy with dirt and blood from the small scratches that adorned him. Miraculously his goggles had survived and were sitting snugly over his eyes, just as clean as when they had gotten them. His lab coat had been reduced to a few blackened shreds that wrapped around his body in a way that reminded Dick of a very crispy scarf. Weirdly enough Wally still had the small oxygen tank strapped to his waist, it seemed to have been protected from the fire. His jeans were now an ashy grey colour and his sneakers were melted around his feet. Dick could almost convince himself that Wally had tried to be a chimney sweep and was now sleeping after such a tiring chore.

But Dick knew that Wally had serious second and third degree burns. Burns that would require medical attention if he wanted his friend to ever wake up again. They would have to call off the mission.

Dick mentally revised that as he watched the second degree burns on Wally's arms slowly knit themselves back together. How fast did speedsters heal again? If Dick supplied Wally with enough food then they might be able to skip the hospital visits and end this nightmarish mission.

He covertly moved his 'cape' over Wally's arms to hide them from the civilians' view. He didn't need to have bothered though as neither of the boys were paying them any attention. Micheal was clutching his wounded arm as he laid out on the ground. His eyes were half lidded and he looked barely conscious. Andy was seated beside Micheal and he was still crying hysterically. It seemed as though he had gone into shock again. Dick's mind reminded him that this was not normal behaviour but behaviour caused by excessive smoke inhalation. They needed to get out of there before they all died from a lack of oxygen.

Hmm.

Dick eyed the oxygen canister that was strapped to Wally. How much did Wally say was left in there? He quickly untied it and checked the gauge. He cursed. There was only enough oxygen for maybe five minutes. Dick glanced up at the thick black smoke that was steadily engulfing the area. There were four wounded people who needed oxygen and only enough oxygen for five minutes.

He could already see his eyesight being eaten away by little black dots. His head felt sluggish, like it was filled with cotton balls, and he felt as though his limbs were tied down by weights. He estimated that they had less than a minute until they would pass out, five until they died.

If Batman was in this situation instead of Dick, he would have taken all of the oxygen for himself. The longer he stayed conscious, the better chance he would have had at getting everyone out alive. Batman would never have put his life into someone else's hands. Instead he would have trusted himself to solve the problem.

If Wally had been awake right now he would have given all of the oxygen to the civilians. He would have wanted to give them every advantage they had to survive. He would have been heroic until his last breath.

Dick eyed the other boys. He had to choose what to do. This was his mission. His chance to prove that he could be his own hero.

He evaluated the options.

Giving Wally the oxygen wouldn't help in any way, he would still be out for the count. Even if he was awake he wouldn't be of any use until he was fully healed. He also posed another problem, Wally would need to be carried.

Andy was still having a mental breakdown. Dick had been able to snap him out of it last time, but he seemed really out of it now. Giving him some oxygen might help, but he couldn't be sure. Of course if he didn't give him oxygen Dick would then also have to carry him. He could handle carrying Wally, but Wally and Andy? Not if he wanted to preserve the O2.

Micheal was the same. While, yes, he did look half asleep hopefully a shot of pure air would perk him up. If he didn't give him any then Dick would again be faced with the prospect of carrying two people. Dick really didn't like that idea.

So, with his mind made up, Dick scooted over to Andy and pressed the canister into his face.

"Take a deep breath." He instructed.

"But not a crazy deep breath, more like a relatively normal breath. Just take a normal breath." He quickly amended.

Andy inhaled. The change was almost instantaneous. His tears stopped and he uncurled from his huddled position.

"Where did you get this?"

"Uh, Wally has asthma." Dick blurted. He should really take some oxygen before he says some more stupid things. "He always carries this around with him. It's like a giant inhaler." Too late.

Dick shoved the canister into his face. He discreetly took in a little bit more than Andy and Micheal would be getting. He did, after all, have to carry Wally.

"You realize that inhalers don't have oxygen in them, right? They have some kind of medicine in them."

"Yes, well, Wally can't get a prescription for an actual inhaler because he is afraid of doctors. Any doctors at all, it's quite sad actually." Dick mentally congratulated himself. His brain must have started functioning properly again.

Andy squinted his eyes.

"Don't they have over-the-counter inhalers?"

"You know what? I really don't think we have time to continue this conversation." Dick waved his hand at the massive forest fire they were in the middle of. "Can you give Micheal the rest of this? I'm going to carry Wally. If I remember correctly there should be an old maintenance road near here."

It wasn't actually a maintenance road but Andy didn't need to know that. In actuality it was a back road that Luthor had used to transport his armed personnel in and out of the camp without any children seeing. When Batman had been planning to sneak into the facility he had wanted to board one of Luthors 'maintenance' trucks and disguise himself as one of the guards.

If they were lucky the road would be free from any debris and they could just walk out of the fire to safety. Once Andy and Micheal were home safe, and Wally was healed, they could begin what Robin liked to call 'Phase Two'.

He didn't actually have a plan, besides the name, but he could figure out the details later.

He hoisted his ginger friend onto his back, trying not to sneeze as some of the ash floated off of him and into the air around him. Not that it made that much of a difference, the smoke was now so thick that he could barely see a foot ahead of him.

His eyes stung from the smoke as he turned to the other boys.

"We're going to head out this way. I'd say that we have two minutes max before we pass out. Hopefully we'll make it to the road before then."

He shifted as Wally's weight dug into his shoulders. He trudged through the thick smog, careful to keep an eye on the other two boys. There was so much ash on the ground that it looked like snow. The forest had turned into a hellish landscape of fire and death. The vibrant green foliage was now brittle and black. The sapphire sky once so brilliant and clear, smothered by the very same thing that was smothering them. The only living thing in this forest was the fire.

They plowed on for what felt like hours but was really just a minute. The world started to get blurrier, Dick couldn't be sure if the smoke had gotten darker or if his vision had started to deteriorate. He didn't know when, but at some point his ears had stopped working. Now they were only giving off a faint ringing noise.

He could vaguely see that Andy had collapsed in front of him. Before he had even reacted to that Micheal had scooped him up in his arms. The poor kid looked like he was struggling to carry his own weight, let alone someone else's. Dick figured that he probably didn't look any better.

The two continued on with shaky feet until they were suddenly at the road. Micheal seemed to give in at that point. He fell over onto the ground, crushing the boy he had been carrying.

Dick surveyed the road. The small stretch of dirt was seemingly untouched by the fire, even as the forest on both sides of it burned with vigour. Even if they have to stop here to catch their breath, this should be a way ho-

Dick's breath hitched as he saw what he had been hoping against.

A large flaming tree was strewn across the road. It was completely blocking the route out of the camp.

He slumped to the ground letting Wally flop off his back.

This was it. He would be defeated by a stupid forest fire just because he wanted to prove that-

Fate decided to once again prove Robin wrong, this time in the shape of an army green van that was hurtling down the old road at a crazy speed.

Dick watched, eyes wide, as the van skidded to a stop in front of the tree. Two men climbed out of the front of the van brandishing chainsaws. They walked away from their vehicle and started hacking away at the tree.

Dick heaved Wally off of the ground and, as stealthily as possible, carried him over to the back of the van.

He blinked as the backdoor opened. Who leaves their door unlocked?

He shrugged as he looked inside.

The back of the van was completely separated from the front two seats. It had a couple random filing cabinets, a couple cardboard boxes filled with files and an old laundry basket that was stuffed full of papers.

He practically threw Wally into the back, before he snuck a peek at the owners of the van. He sighed in relief as he found that they were still aggressively cutting the flaming tree apart.

He, stealthily, ran back to the other boys and didn't even bother picking them up. He grabbed their arms and dragged them over to the vehicle. His arms were shaking as he loaded them into the back.

His vision tunnelled as he climbed into the van. His limbs protested every movement, begging him to just stop moving.

Dick closed the van doors, casting the small enclosure in darkness. He shuffled over to his best friend's side, before he finally gave in to sleep.


	6. All in Due Time

Wally gagged as a clumpy liquid oozed down his throat. The foul taste coated his mouth and threw him into a hazy panic. His eyes shot open as he spat the offending fluid out. What was that? Where was he? The adrenaline coursing through his body instinctively sped up his perception of the world. With his mind working faster than a supercomputer he analyzed his surroundings.

The room was small and, oddly enough, metallic. He was lying down on his back on the floor, which was… vibrating? It was a controlled rocking motion now, but he was sure that if he were perceiving things at a normal speed it would be jolting. So, he was in a small, metallic room that vibrated; He had to be in a moving vehicle of some kind. Maybe a truck or some kind of van? All around him were tall metal filing cabinets that,from his position on the ground, seemed to imitate skyscrapers. Their metal glinted menacingly in the dim light of the mystery vehicle.

How did he get here? The last thing he remembered was… Oh.

He had covered Micheal in a last ditch attempt to save him from the blast and the explosion had sent the both of them flying. He remembered that he had blacked out before hitting the ground and that he had been still holding Micheal in a vice grip. After that he vaguely remembered searing heat and the snap of branches, but even those vague memories were fuzzy at best.

Out of the corner of his eye an arm was visible. The arm stuck in time, waiting above him for the time-stream to resume its normal speed. It was holding a water bottle over his head with a brown unidentifiable liquid inside. His throat tightened as he realized that this mystery person had been trying to get him to drink that mush. It was possible that Luthor's men had found them in the aftermath of the explosion and had loaded him onto one of their trucks to experiment on. If that was true then he really needed to get out of there.

Wally twitched as he tried to sit up. He was not prepared for the onslaught of pain that followed. It was if every nerve in his body was screaming, his entire body spasmed as his brain tried to handle the sensory overload. As his back in agony and his mind frayed, his focus crumbled. The world snapped back into action as he writhed in silence. The pain was too tormenting for him to even form sounds or words, except for a strangled rasping noise that rattled in his lungs.

The arm that had previously been suspended in time above him recoiled with shock.

In his pain induced haze Wally didn't notice the aforementioned bottle being snatched from the recoiling arm's grasp. He definitely noticed though when the cursed bottle was shoved into his mouth and his nose was pinched, cutting off his much needed air supply. As wounded as he was, he wasn't able to put up much of a fight and, after stubbornly holding his breath as long as possible, he was forced to drink the mysterious fluid.

He gasped for air when the bottle was removed. His lungs ached and burned as he tried to even out his breathing.

"Walls! You scared me, dude." A familiar voice cheered. No one should be that happy when he was in this much pain. Wally turned to glare at the speaker.

He focused his eyes on the person who was now holding the empty bottle.

"Dick?" He sputtered. Oh, thank Batman! Wally's irritation melted away as he took in his friend's face. His raven hair was slicked to his forehead and blood had dried on the side of his face. His skin glistened an odd colour as his sweat and the soot on his face mixed together in an odd way. The thin grey sweat/soot coating covered his face, but thin lines, running from his eyes and down his cheeks, of the muck had been suspiciously cleared off. Almost as if the kid had been crying.

Wally shook that thought away. He'd bring it up later but now really wasn't the time. He twinged in agony as his back shifted against the metal floor underneath him.

"Yeah, It's me." The kid smiled. Relief was evident in his eyes.

"What did I drink?" He croaked out, cringing as whatever vehicle they were in hit a rather large bump on the road.

"Protein powder, crushed Advil and some water." He chirped. "It was the only food and medicine that we had."

"Why would you give me Advil?" Wally questioned, completely confused. Dick knew that Advil wouldn't even make a dent on his speedster metabolism. To drug a speedster you would need a really strong drug, like horse tranquilizer strong, and even then it would wear off within hours. It was awesome whenever anyone tried to poison him but it was a pain in the butt when it came to medicine and pain relievers.

"Because it looked like you were dying!" A new voice squeaked. The person speaking waved the only visible part of him, his arm, around. Wally recalled that it was the same arm that had previously been holding the bottle, before Dick had taken it from him. Wally grunted, annoyed that he couldn't turn his head to see the rest of the speaker.

"Who-"

Dick cut him off.

"Andy and Micheal. Our cabin-mates." He arched an eyebrow at Wally.

"Remember?" Dick added pointedly after a small moment of silence.

Right, the civilians. They added the Advil because they thought that it would help him and Dick obviously wasn't going to tell them otherwise.

He cleared his throat awkwardly from the ground.

"Thanks, I feel so much better." He smiled, hoping to cover up the fact that he couldn't even tell that he had ingested the meds. The smile must have been unconvincing though, as Dick stared at him strangely and Andy's head popped into view sporting the same expression.

"Hooray for pain medication." He added halfheartedly. He raised his hand to give an air punch but aborted the action when his back flared up again. He dropped his hand, grinding his teeth together to avoid screaming.

"Okay, so that," Andy waved his hand in Wally's general direction. "is concerning. He needs to go to a hospital."

"He needs food and some rest." Dick huffed.

"He needs serious medical attention." Andy glared.

Wally cut off Dick's next retort. "He needs to sit up." He said, inserting himself into the conversation.

Dick helped him shift into a sitting position. He groaned as his back hit the cool metal of the wall. From his new position he could see the rest of the small area that he could now tell was the back of a van. They were tucked into the corner behind a row of filing cabinets that were rattling together with the movement of the van.

He groaned weakly as the van hit a particularly nasty bump.

"What's wrong with my back? It feels like I got attacked with a chainsaw."

Andy crouched in front of him, giving him a serious 'I-know-what's-best-for-you-so-just-listen' look. The effect was somewhat ruined by the smashed up glasses that dangled from his face and the fact that his short, pristine hair now resembled Einstein's famous hairdo.

"You have third degree burns covering your back. You also have some second degree burns on your arm." He paused, seemingly for affect. "If you don't get to a hospital soon you will die."

Wally stared at the short tech genius, before he turned to Dick.

"My legs?"

"They're fine." He assured.

"I'll be fine then. Just give me some time." He squinted at the van's ceiling. "How much time do we have? Wait, where are we going?"

"Okay. No. You are obviously in shock. It's okay, I was too! But you're not thinking clearly! You need a hospital!" Andy's face was completely red. His glasses seemed to glint in the metallic light of the van. Wally almost started giggling at his glasses, they looked like they were ripped out of an overly dramatic anime. He stopped himself though, he figured laughing hysterically at Andy's glasses wouldn't help his cause very much.

Dick grinned at Wally. He completely ignored the small, angry child beside him.

"We're bee-lining straight to Luthor's HQ. That's why we're wearing these disasters."

Dick pointed to the bright yellow hazmat suits that him and Andy were clad in. Wally stared at the rubber ducky coloured jumpsuit. Those were glaringly obvious, he probably should have noticed them before. He raised his arm to his head. Maybe he was in shock?

Beside him, Andy gasped.

Wally pulled his hand away from his temples. "What?"

"Your arm, it's… How is this possible?" His eyes grew wide as he stared at Wally's arm.

Wally peaked a glance at his arm. It was a completely normal, soot covered arm. He really didn't understand what Andy was freaking out about. He glanced at Dick, whose face was resting comfortably in the palm of his hand.

"What?" He asked again.

Dick pulled himself out of his face-palm long enough to glare at Wally, before he smacked his hand right back into his face.

Andy made an incoherent squeaking sound.

"You had second degree burns all over your arm!"

Oh.

"Well," Wally started, in a desperate attempt to keep his identity. "That was some really strong Advil."

"Advil." Andy repeated.

"Yes?" Wally dragged the word out, hoping it would convince the kid.

Andy stared at him.

He stared back.

Finally the kid ‘hmm’ed and sat back. He waited a little bit before he stood up.

"I'm going to see if I can find some more Advil." The kid said as he walked off behind some filing cabinets.

"I am so lucky the kid doesn't know a thing about medicine." Wally breathed out. He turned to his exasperated friend. "So, what's the plan?"

A mischievous glint lit up his eyes.

"I'm glad you asked."

...

The young magician shifted nervously in the overly bright hospital room. The team, minus Rocket who had been selected to distract Red Tornado and Black Canary while they were gone, watched her silently from various places in the small room.

"Zee, relax. You'll do fine." M'gann said as she smiled in her direction.

Zatanna gave a forced laugh, as she tried not to look at the severely charred man in front of her.

The first firefighters at the scene had found the man on the edges of the campsite. It looked as though he had been sweeping the perimeter when everything had exploded. He was extremely lucky, other than the guards they had arrested, this man was the only one in the facility that had gotten away alive.

Unfortunately, this meant that he was their only source of information. Even though there were plenty of men sitting in jail, that they had arrested and taken from the camp, they couldn't access any of them without alerting the League.

The man's skin was black and peeling off of his body and the muscle underneath had the same light brown color that cooked meat had. Most of his body was covered up in stark white bandages but Zatanna had unwrapped his arm.

The ex-guard was in a coma. The doctors didn't think that he would make it through the night. In his failing health, his mind was far too faint for M'gann to shift through his memories or learn anything useful.

So the team needed Zatanna, to quote Artemis, 'use her healing mumbo-jumbo to fix him.'

She let out a shaky breath.

She could do this.

Zatanna placed her hand on the man's skin and reached out, with all of her senses, to his life force. It was wound tightly, like a rubber band about to snap, and it was progressively thinning as pieces were shaved off of it. Every time a piece was sliced off his life force got harder to grasp and was wound up a little tighter.

She felt her own life force buried deep within her. It was as hard as a stone and as stable as one too. To heal this man she would have to visualize her own life force and try to replicate it in the burn victim.

She gathered her power, focused on the life force in front of her, and spoke.

"Laeh."

The power of her voice reverberated throughout the small hospital room and sent shivers down her teammate's backs.

Zatanna latched onto the dying man's life force and tried to stabilize him. 

Imagine trying to hold together a sand castle, but the sand is dry and brittle. Every time you touch the sand castle sand falls off, but if you don't try to hold it up then the entire thing will crumble. Now imagine that you are doing all this, but you are also simultaneously trying to build the sand castle up higher by adding more sand. That was pretty much how Zatanna felt while she was trying to pull off the impossible.

"I'm only going to be able to hold this spell for a couple of minutes. The damage is too severe." She announced to M'gann.

"Got it." M'gann nodded and then moved into position beside Zatanna. She lightly cupped the man's head as her eyes started glowing green.

"This man, Theodore Gustin, wasn't a very high ranking employee. He was a new recruit. He didn't have a clue about what Cadmus and Luthor were doing."

Conner grunted.

"Great. We get the only clueless guy in the whole facility."

He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, the perfect poster boy for teen angst.

"Oh, wait!" M'gann gasped. "He was dating one of the scientists. He visited her in the lab."

"Did he see anything?" Aqualad inquired.

"It's hard to tell. He wasn't really focused on anything else, except for his girlfriend. The details are a little fuzzy."

Zatanna could feel her power slowly ebbing away from her healing spell. They didn't have much time and she voiced this to her friends.

"Okay, uh, there's a strange symbol on the girlfriend's computer."

"The Cadmus symbol?" Artemis questioned from the table she was perched on. She was staring a little too intently at her phone. Why was Wally not texting her back? He always managed to text her at least once, even when he was on covert missions.

"No, it's not the Cadmus symbol. It's three circles, they're in a horizontal line but the middle one is higher than the other two."

"The circles are in a triangular formation? Is there anything else unique about the symbol?" Aqualad spoke, his voice soothing despite the tense environment.

"There's a line connecting the top circle to the bottom circles, but the two bottom circles are not connected to each other."

"Huh?" Conner scrunched up his nose. He wasn't following this conversation at all.

"It's a triangle but without the bottom line. Each corner has a circle on it." M'gann tried to clarify. "It seems to-"

She paused.

"M'gann? What's wrong?" Conner asked. He pushed away from the wall and hovered worriedly behind the martian.

"The guards all knew what to do in case of an emergency! They had to grab all the information that they could, find a vehicle and go to Luthor's other base."

"Do you know where the base is?" Aqualad questioned. This was just the information they needed.

"No, but I know where to find it. His watch isn't actually a watch, it will have the GPS coordinates to Luthor's HQ." M'gann relayed. Her glowing eyes seemed to be staring forward into nothingness.

Kaldur stepped forward and removed the watch from Theodore's wrist. Miraculously it had remained intact.

"Great," Artemis said as she leapt off of the table. She was feeling horrible about the explosion and the only person she would actually be willing to talk to about it wasn't responding to her texts. She was ready to let off a little steam."Let's go punch some goons."

"I think there's something else. He glanced at the top of one of his girlfriend's files. She closed it before he could see more, but he managed to see the name."

"What is it?" Zatanna asked, getting increasingly impatient. They only had seconds before her spell would be spent. And after that, they wouldn't get anything else from him.

"Project Brainiac."

The room went quiet as a shrill beep from the heart monitor indicated that Theodore Gustin had flat-lined.

...

Red Arrow slipped into the shadows of the warehouse silently.

"Are you sure about this?" He grunted at his semi-informant.

"It's insulting that you even have to ask." She scoffed. She blended into the darkness effortlessly. Cheshire turned her smiling mask to face him. "Luthor is messing with forces he doesn't understand. He's using stolen New Genesis tech to try to advance his cause. The boom tube drops off new tech like clockwork, it will open in half an hour and when it does Luthor's men will come and pick it up."

"And then we sneak into their truck and infiltrate their HQ."

Cheshire reached up and took off her mask.

"There is no 'we'. I gave you the intel you needed and I will help you get on that truck, but I can't come with you."

"But-"

"It's one thing to help you locate the other Roy, it's another thing altogether to charge directly into Luthor's lair."

"Fine. I can do this without you." He gritted his teeth and turned away. He tried to ignore the hurt expression on her normally stone cold face as she replaced the mask.

"Never doubted you, arrow-boy." She purred, her cat-like persona once again completely intact. "Just watch out for Luthor. His weapons are pretty advanced. I'd hate to see your beautiful face get ruined."

"The only face that will be ruined is Luthor's." Roy ground out as he sharpened his arrowhead.

"I thought you only used dulled or trick arrows." Jade hummed from over his shoulder.

Roy stared at the silver blade-like arrowhead that adorned the red shaft of his arrow.

"I'm making an exception for Luthor."


	7. The Blood Runs Red

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: There are depictions of violence and gory subject matter in this chapter

Dick held his breath as he waited for the guard's heavy footsteps to fade into the distance. The clang of their metal toed boots hitting the cement echoed throughout the tunnel that snaked outside. When the sounds were no longer audible Dick crouched down next to the old metal door that was hiding them. A thin shaft of light poured in from the small space between the door and the solid ground. 

The small side room that they had 'acquired' was dimly lit and shadows had grown haphazardly around their small group. Dick could tell that the darkness unnerved his civilian counterparts, but he couldn't be more relieved. In his opinion this mission had spent far too long in the daylight and he was itching to slip away into the cool embrace of night.

There had been two men stationed in the room when they had arrived. The room was situated right beside the loading dock that they’d been delivered to. It had been easy to knock the guards out, even with the civilians tagging along. One swift blow to the head with pipe and the guards were down for the count. He was fairly confident that the tag-along's wouldn't piece anything together regarding their combat ability.

The boy wonder scanned what he could see of the floor behind their metal hiding place. When he was positive that there was no one out there he stood back up and faced the other boys.

"Okay, we don't have a lot of time before the next patrol comes through. That should give us enough time to-"

"Hey, guys." Wally spoke up, cutting Robin off mid-sentence. "It would really help if you could search the rest of the area for anything else that might come in handy." Wally said as he mowed down on a large sub. 

The room had evidently been used as a makeshift break room and there had been some assorted bagged lunches scattered around on the cold cement floor. KF had made quick work of them once they had been discovered and had devoured them all. Thanks to that hardy meal the injuries that had once been life threatening were now just paper-cuts and sunburns. 

Robin was glad that his best friend would be at full strength; He had been a little worried that Wally's healing factor was being stretched thin.

"Yeah, sure." Andy replied, pulling a reluctant Micheal with him to scour the room.

Andy had been acting as though he was a doctor and Wally was his patient. It was a little ironic actually, given how little he knew about biology and medicine. For pete's sake the kid got weak-kneed at the sight of blood.

He had been the one to find the food, though. He had plucked it right out of the hands of the unconscious guards and, after he had seen Wally visibly perk up at the sight of a sandwich, he had rushed back to get more.

"Thanks." Wally called as the boys started searching through old crates and boxes.

"We aren't going to need anything here." Dick whispered. He was a little annoyed that Wally had interrupted him. They only had a limited amount of time before someone stumbled across them.

"We need to talk about your plan." Wally whispered back. The red head was growing increasingly concerned that Dick hadn't noticed the glaring flaw in his plan.

"What? Is it about your injuries? I thought that they were healing."

"No, I'm fine. It's just... I really don't think that we should just leave the civilians alone here. In a compound like this it won't be long until they're caught." Wally scratched the back of his neck. His back pain had morphed into a dull throb and his arm was doing fine, but all of his energy was going towards healing his body. If anything were to go wrong Wally wasn't sure that he'd be able carry both of the civilians out of the base.

"I know it's not ideal but we have a duty to find out what 'Project Brainiac' is before Luthor completes it. Besides, they'll be safe here until we get back."

On the long road trip there Dick had read through all of the files that he had previously downloaded from Cadmus' computers. Cadmus had been doing some downright creepy and evil things by themselves, but what Luthor had paid them to do was on a whole other level.

The documents detailed how Cadmus had been tasked with finding genius level children to fuel 'Project Brainiac'. They had been instructed to only use children due to their natural innocence and naivety. They wanted the weapon to be smart but they were scared that it would become self aware. 

There was no mention of who or what Brainic was, but Robin knew that if it was able to frighten both Lex Luthor and Cadmus it was a threat. A threat that needed to be taken seriously.

"We also have a duty to keep these civilians safe. Luthor wants them. Heck, he needs them and we literally just hand delivered them to Lex. If we leave them here it's only a matter of time before they get caught. We can't risk that." Wally reasoned.

"I understand that you're concerned, but we'll be back with the intel in no time. If we bring them with us or they'll figure out who we are, and we can't risk that. If we lose this chance we might not be able to stop Luthor before it's too late."

"I can't leave them defenceless." He argued.

The raven haired boy huffed. He really didn't want it to come to this but he couldn't allow them to fail the mission over something as simple as this.

"You don't really have much of a choice. Batman put me in charge of this mission, which means that I have the final say. This intel is our priority. Necessary risks will have to be made for the information we need." Dick glared. 

Wally was letting his emotions get the better of him. For this mission to succeed they would have to think logically and Robin really needed this mission to succeed. This was his chance to prove that he could lead a mission without disastrous consequences.

"I don't care if you are the team leader. I will not put innocent lives in danger." Wally glared back at the young bird. He would not sacrifice his morals because Robin decided to go on a power trip. "I'm getting these kids to safety, with or without you."

"Then I guess I'm flying solo."

* * *

Red Arrow glanced at his target.

The middle aged man scurried further down the passageway to get away from him. He was clearly not a fighter; He was short, overweight and seemed to have some kind of respiratory problem by the way that he was wheezing. Asthma, perhaps?

He was a stereotypical mad scientist, with huge wide brimmed lab goggles and a crisp clean lab coat, but he also seemed to have a 'businessman' air around him.

Roy smirked as the man slipped in a puddle of blood and fell to the ground. The red fluid seeped into his clothing as he hurried to stand again.

Luthor's guards were strewn about the hallway, each one gifted with their very own arrow. Roy had laced the tips of his arrows with a sedative; Effectively making his shots a one-hit knockout. Unfortunately for the guards this meant that they would have to be cut by an arrow for the drug to take effect.

Red Arrow stepped over to the closest guard and retrieved the arrow from his shoulder. He couldn't afford to waste any arrows, both literally and figuratively. He quickly gathered up the rest of his ammo, while also carefully avoiding the blood that was pooling on the ground, and made his way over to Luthor's head scientist.

"Please, don't shoot me! I'll pay you anything!" The man pleaded, desperate to get away.

Roy didn't even dignify the man with a response. He grabbed an arrow from his quiver and swiftly jabbed it into the scientist's arm.

The red head watched as the overweight man succumbed to the drug. Luthor's scientist collapsed to the floor and his eyes fluttered shut.

Roy had no sympathy for anyone who worked for Luthor or Cadmus and he was disgusted to find a man who willingly worked for both. He leaned over the scientist's body and searched his pockets.

He smiled as he pulled out a key card. It was attached to a small clip on his hip by a thin wire. This key card was high enough clearance to give him access to the part of the building that Luthor would be in.

A guard moaned from her position on the floor. Red Arrow took in all of the carnage around him and sighed. None of this would have been necessary if he had Robin's hacking skills. That kid can hack anything.

Roy steeled himself.

Could. 

That kid could hack anything. 

Past tense.

The growl that emanated from his chest reverberated off of the cement walls. Luther killed his brothers and Roy was not going to let him get away with it.

Quickly grabbing hold of the shaft of the arrow, he pulled it out of the balding man's arm. He re-positioned his grip on it before slicing it through the thin wire attached to the card. The key card fell into his hands, ready to be used.

He celebrated the victory for all of a second before a blaring alarm sounded out throughout the compound. The normal lights were switched off and replaced with a dull red. The new red lights flashed, completely in-sync with the alarm.

"INTRUDER ON PREMISES. INTRUDER ON PREMISES. INTRUDER ON PREMISES." A screeching voice repeated in a robotic manner.

Red Arrow looked down at the wire he had just severed, cursing as he spotted the tell tale gleam of copper inside it.

He glanced back up. A battalion of boots could already be heard marching throughout the tunnels to his location. He swore and recounted his arrows.

"Well, this will be fun."

* * *

"This was a bad idea." Micheal grumbled as he trudged behind them. "Why would we split up? Splitting up is always the worst thing to do! Whenever people split up in horror movies it always ends in death."

"No one is going to die." Wally pacified as he led them through the dark tunnel.

"Yeah, and this isn't a horror movie. So, horror movie rules don't apply." Andy added.

The three stopped, silent, as a loud clang sounded out from the darkness. They waited for what seemed like an eternity for any additional sounds, each one holding their breath in fear.

Wally gave the all-clear after a few moments of silence and they slowly started moving forwards through the darkness. He had chosen this route because it seemed like it would be the path of least resistance. Even though there were faster ways out of the compound, he couldn't risk getting into a fight with the civilians present. For both their safety and his identity.

They had made their way back into the loading dock, the one that they had arrived in, and had snuck into a maintenance tunnel from there. The maintenance tunnels ran underneath the entire compound and one of the older tunnels exited at a little shed on the edge of the property. 

The shed seemed like it was used to house all of the company's landscaping tools, so Wally assumed that it would have a minimum amount of security and would be easy to escape out of.

Once they had escaped the premises it would take twenty minutes to walk to the closest town, which they knew thanks to a GPS they had 'borrowed' from one of the trucks at the loading dock.

"This is a horror movie." Micheal belatedly retorted. "We're teenage summer campers and there's an insane killer trying to get us. It's so cliche it hurts. Plus, I'm 78% sure that this tunnel is haunted."

Wally rolled his eyes as he forged forward. He was trying to tune out their conversation as much as possible. Even the slightest noise could indicate that someone was coming down their tunnel, so he needed to stay focused.

"The tunnel is not haunted." Andy groaned. He slouched through the darkness, never straying far from Wally. His broken glasses glinted occasionally in the dim light.

"How do you know?" He grumbled. Micheal was fed up with all of this cloak and dagger stuff. He was a man of action. If something was wrong, he would fix it. That's why he loved engineering so much. Even though he was terrified, he would've rather face the situation head-on than sneak around.

"Maybe because there's no such thing as ghosts?" Andy muttered as he hunched in on himself. His eyes were wide as they scanned his surroundings in a twitchy manner. Despite his earlier proclamation he watched the surrounding area like a hawk, he was half expecting a poltergeist to materialize out of the darkness and grab him with it's ghastly claws. The poor preteen was scared out of his mind and the high stress situation was clearly freaking him out.

"Says you." Micheal spat out. "I swear I hear moaning, or something. Listen."

The group stopped moving to try to hear the aforementioned sound. Without the group's constant bickering Wally was able to hear what Micheal was talking about, there was a faint squeaking in the distance. Andy visibly paled as he heard the noise and he started hyperventilating as all of the blood drained from his face.

"Oh, god." Andy breathed.

"See?" Micheal said, shifting from foot to foot. He was very eager to leave the godforsaken hellhole that was the maintenance tunnel.

"It's not a ghost." Wally interjected. He crossed his arms and glared at Micheal, as if he was daring him to disagree. His eyes narrowed as he listened to continuous squeaking.

"Right." Andy spoke, trying to calm himself down. "A high pitched squeak in an underground tunnel? It's not a ghost, it's a rodent."

Micheal shrugged, smirking at Wally's attempt at intimidation. "It could be the ghost of a rodent." He said as he turned back to Andy.

"No, it's continuous. The sound just keeps going. A rodent would have to stop to breathe at some point." Wally said, as his eyes widened in realization. "It's the squeak of metal on metal, almost like an old wheel. It's getting louder, which means that it's headed our way."

The hero-in-training wasted no time as he grabbed the two boys' arms and pulled them along, at a normal speed, as he broke into a sprint. Wally hoped that whoever was behind them wouldn't hear their feet slapping against the stone floor or their heavy breaths as they searched for cover. His green eyes strained as he ran through the dark, searching desperately in the pitch black for somewhere to hide.

They charged blindly into the unknown for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only a couple of minutes, until they came across a small rock outcropping. It looked like it was left over rubble from an old tunnel collapse. Wally immediately dove behind it, his two companions in tow, and they all crouched down as low as they could. 

The small pile of rubble would do nothing to conceal them in full light, but Wally knew that this would probably be the best place to hide and that the chances were slim that he'd find a better one. He just hoped that whoever was coming up behind them would only have a small, dull light. Hopefully whatever wasn't covered up by the rocks would blend into the shadows.

The small group waited in the dark for the eerie squeaking to get louder, their stiff joints ached from their crouched position, but no one dared to move. They listened to the ominous sound echo off of the natural stone walls and ping against the cold, uneven rock floors. They held their breaths as a steady rumble soon also became audible, and soon after that a clanking noise made itself known.

One by one, they peered over the rocks and into the unending void of darkness behind them, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was following them. The grating cacophony slithered out of the darkness in uneven waves, as a barely visible blob of night steadily distanced itself from the shadows that surrounded it.

Seconds ticked by as the blob moved forward and became clearer as it gained distinguishing features. Wally wished he had his night vision goggles as he squinted at the unfamiliar shape to try to determine what it was. It rattled as it rolled over the bumpy terrain and the never ending screech of it's wheels filled the air with its horrible sound, attacking the peaceful silence with a furious rage.

An ancient, run down mining cart soon revealed itself as the perpetrator to the trio. The cart was weighed down and it's top was covered by a dusty blue tarp. A decrepit looking old man in a green rubber jumpsuit was pushing the cart down the tunnel. 

Absentmindedly following the mining cart was a teenager in a matching green jumpsuit, he was pushing along a dolly with a metal tank balanced on it and he was carrying a hose that was looped around his shoulder. The younger one also seemed to have headphones on and Wally noticed that his head subtly bobbed to his an unknown tune.

They stumbled through the tunnel, grunting as they heaved their heavy items over the rocky ground. Wally mentally cheered as they seemed to be too preoccupied with their jobs to notice their hiding spot.

Amidst the ear shattering sounds being admitted from the cart the old man wasn't aware that, as he hit a particularly big bump, an object from his cart fell out from under the tarp that was stretched over the top. The teen sighed as he yanked his headphones off.

"Hey! Forgetting something?" He yelled as he pointed to the fallen object. Wally tried to see what it was but it was too obscured by shadows.

The old man grumbled as he continued moving forward.

"Just pick the damn thing up and put it back." He barked.

The teen's face scrunched up with protest as he bent over and gingerly plucked the object off of the ground. He held it out as far away from his body as possible in disgust, and Wally stiffened as he got a better look at it. In the teenager's gloved hands was a severed human arm.

The appendage had been cut off at the elbow and cut was jagged, which suggested that a saw-like device had been used in the removal of the limb. Wally hoped that the arm had been removed after it's owner's death, because he knew that losing a limb like that would be extremely painful and the person would've died anyway after the amputation due to blood-loss or shock.

The fingers of the arm were stiff as the Lex corp employee held it in the air, indicating that rigor mortis had already set in. Given that rigor mortis sets in 2-6 hours after death and that it lasts for approximately 36 hours, that placed the time of death for this individual as sometime within the last 38-42 hours.

Sorrow and guilt pummelled Wally as he thought back to what they would've been doing at that time and he wished that he could have somehow stopped this tragedy from occurring. If any they had been faster, more efficient, maybe they could have saved this person from Luthor's clutches.

A sparkle caught his attention as Wally noticed, for the first time, the glittery pink nail polish that adorned the victim's nails. He was stricken as he compared the size of the arm to that of the teenager's arm for confirmation. The arm was small. The fingers, the hand, the forearm, everything about this arm was smaller than it should have been. This wasn't an adult, this was a child. A young girl, probably around the age of ten. The soft pink nail polish, that once would've mirrored her complexion now contrasted harshly with the victim's pale, blue-tinged skin.

She didn't deserve this. She should be alive right now, safe and sound, surrounded by those who love her. She should have grown up, finished school, got her dream job, got married, had kids. She should have led a full life. Maybe she would have been president one day or maybe she would have been the person to finally cure cancer.

Her parents would have no closure, yearning for their little girl whom they loved so much. They would never know who she could have been or get to live those moments with her. The love of their life disappeared without any warning and would never return. 

Wally glared at the tank that was being pushed by the dolly and felt his anger triple as he realized what it was for. Her last moments on this earth were agony and her grieving family would never know because these men were going to melt the body with corrosives.

"Disgusting." The young man said as he tossed the limb back into the cart.

Wally saw red as he stood up, disregarding the campers frantic hands trying to pull him back down. He marched up behind the teenager and swung his fist into his temple. The force of the punch slammed the teen's head into the stone wall and he slumped over.

The old man turned around at the sound and charged straight towards him with a surprising amount of speed. His arms were stretched out like he was going to try to grab him.

Wally stood in place until the last possible second, waiting until the man was close enough to close his arms around him. Then Wally sidestepped, ducking under the man's outstretched arms. He let his foot drag behind as he did so to trip the man mid-run. The senior citizen couldn't stop in time and slammed down onto the floor.

He wheezed as he attempted to get back up, but Wally was so furious that he didn't even let him try. The speedster swiftly kicked him in the head and watched as he crumpled over.

"Are you crazy?" Andy yelped. "You could have been killed! We could have been killed! Why would you risk that?"

Wally turned to face them. His anger had melted back into sadness as he stared at the rusted, old mining cart.

"These people deserve a proper burial." Tears welled up in his eyes and he quickly wiped them away. "Their families need to know what happened. Luthor can't get away with this."

Micheal grunted in agreement. "What do we do with these guys?" He said as he gestured toward the Luthor employees.

"They could wake up at any second but hopefully this will slow them down." Wally replied as he used the hose to tie their hands together.

The small group somberly made their way down the tunnel. The loud clamour the cart made as they pushed it with them put them all on high alert, because they no longer had the element of surprise or stealth. All conversations of the tunnel being haunted ceased as the three teenagers knew that it wasn't possible for the tunnel to contain anything more horrifying than what lay in the cart in front of them.

Their muscles ached as they pushed and pulled the massive metal cart deeper into the tunnel. They gritted their teeth as the nauseatingly irritating screech from the wheels threatened to fry their brains and ears. After what seemed like hours of moving at a snail's pace they finally arrived at an old industrial elevator.

The boys dragged the cart onto the elevator with them and Wally slammed the metal fence-like doors shut. They shakily rose through the earth and watched, from the dim light of the elevator, as the layers of sediment passed by.

They stopped in an old wooden shed that was littered with various tools. Andy and Micheal dragged the mining cart off of the elevator as Wally kicked the door to the shed open. He sighed in relief as sunlight streamed in, momentarily blinding him after being in the dark for so long. He was so happy to be out of those tunnels.

The other boys seemed to perk up at the sight of the sun too and it almost seemed to energize them. The three kids pulled the cart behind the shed in between two bushes. They then threw some branches on it, hoping that it would camouflage it.

"We can't take it with us, it's too heavy. Once we get to town we can get the police. This should give them the evidence they need to arrest Luthor and everyone else that's involved." Wally informed his cabin mates.

They moved toward the tree line as Wally explained where the closest town was. As they entered the forest Micheal turned back and glared at the large concrete building.

"This place deserves to burn."

The lights on the building lit up in red and alarms began to blare.

"INTRUDER ON PREMISES." The alarm sounded on a loop.

Wally cursed as he ran back towards the shed.

"What are you doing?" Andy yelled, terrified.

"Go get help, get to the town! I have to get Dick, but we'll meet you there!" Wally yelled as he charged back into the tool shed. They must have found Robin, that's why they had sounded the alarm.

He jumped into the elevator as his mind replayed the image of the little girl's arm in his head. He wouldn't let that happen. Not to his best friend.

"I'm coming, Rob." He muttered to himself as the elevator descended into darkness. "Just hang on."


	8. Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel

Robin resisted the urge to scratch his nose.

He had 'borrowed' a rather small technician's uniform so that if anyone came across him tinkering with the computers they wouldn't set off an alarm. The uniform came with a welder's mask of sorts, to protect the technician's face from sparks. It was sleek and covered his full face, leaving only a tinted window for him to see out of.

It had been a good call as, in the middle of breaking through the firewall, a group of workers came into the room. They hadn't seemed to have cared that he was there and had just kept on talking among themselves.

He had managed to find a small unguarded computer terminal in what looked like a small office. If offices were painted black and the office workers wore bullet proof armour and carried firearms.

He now had an incredible dilemma in front of him; lift his mask to scratch the itch on his nose and risk that the workers notice that he's a kid or suffer the eternal torture that comes with unscratched itches.

He stripped a wire to expose the copper beneath to keep his hands busy. The computer was in pieces all around him as he created a manual bypass. He unhooked the soldering iron, it had come with the uniform, and quickly started reassembling the machinery. His fingers cramped as he nimbly soldered the tiny wires to place, desperately trying to finish quickly.

He sighed in relief as he finished. The boy wonder picked himself off of the floor and moved to sit in front of the computer's many monitors. The keys on the keyboard clicked with protest as he started to dive into the hard drive.

"Hey! Get your grubby hands off of the computer. Your job is to fix the wires and stuff, not to play solitaire." One of the workers yelled.

Mimicking an older, deeper voice Robin replied. "I'm just checking to make sure it works."

He winced as his voice sounded distorted and fake.

"Are you mocking me? Fellas, I think this scrawny tin-head is mocking me!" The man's face contorted as he started lumbering towards Grayson. The other men didn't seem to have heard the enraged man, much to his chagrin.

If he got too close he would see what Robin was doing.

"Uh, sorry. It wasn't my intention to insult you." He said, trying to pacify.

"Sir." Robin tacked on for good measure.

The off-duty guard didn't slow down or even indicate that he heard the apology. He flung a chair out of his way as he advanced.

Robin tensed his muscles, subtly manoeuvring off of his chair and into a fighting stance. He would rather avoid this but he would take them all out if he had to.

Just as the man reached him an ear grating shriek filled the air. A robotic voice joined in, informing the compound that there were intruders. The already dim lights shut off and a flashing red emergency light took their place.

Luthor's employees completely forgot about him as they dropped their coffee mugs and rushed out the door.

Dick let out a muted curse as he jerked back to the computer. Closing what he was previously doing, he opened the security camera's feed. His brow furrowed as he saw how many cameras he would have to sort through to find Wally.

He should never have left, without him Wally was probably surrounded. He would barely be able to fight, as he couldn't use his powers without revealing his identity. Robin should have known that it would be extremely difficult to sneak out of the facility without being caught. What kind of leader leaves their team to be caught? What kind of leader was he?

Scrolling through the feeds he was able to track the guards movements. They were running through the halls to the source of the alarm. He hurriedly clicked on the feed that would hopefully show him where the men were converging.

The screen was a flurry of activity but smoke obscured the majority of the action. However, the young detective was still able to see occasional flashes of red hair. Guards were being thrown out of the mass of smoke left and right, even as more ran in to fight.

Robin felt frozen, unable to move as he watched his best friend fight an army of armed guards alone. He wouldn't be able to fight all of those men while also protecting two civilians, even with his speed. Luthor's men disappeared into the encompassing fog, leaving Dick with nothing to see but vague blurs. He waited, completely still, for five tense minutes before the screen started to change.

The air slowly cleared to reveal a pile of men lying prone on the ground. He scanned the bodies for Wally's tell-tale red hair and sighed in relief when he spotted his friend unharmed. His back was to the camera, but Robin could tell by his posture that he was relatively uninjured. 

The guards all seemed to be down for the count, but a quick glance at the screens beside him told Robin that they would be easily replaced. More guards were quickly approaching Wally's location from every direction, swarming by the dozens.

He looked back at Wally and watched as the red head bent down to pick something up.

Wait. Were those arrows?

Robin blinked.

Roy? What the heck was he doing? He stared at the screen, transfixed as he watched his older brother (in everything but blood) collect his ammo. The boy wonder desperately tried to grasp why Red Arrow was here.

He shook his head. If Roy wanted to crash their mission, then fine. Red Arrow ran out of frame, wisely deciding to leave before reinforcements showed up.

Robin moved his mouse to close the footage when a familiar blur stopped him. He watched as the streak rushed past the camera's line of sight. Wally seemed to be going in the opposite direction of Roy, which was conveniently towards Robin's current location.

Springing out of his chair he rushed towards the door. He quickly flung it open and lifted his mask. As he looked down the hallway he felt dread start to build in his gut. Wally could've already passed him, who knew with a speedster. It was hard to judge what time they would make it to a destination, it was more than likely that he was already long gone.

Robin turned to go back into the room.

It was a long shot.

In the blink of an eye warm arms were embracing him from behind. Robin sighed in relief at the sudden appearance of Wally before he shoved the older boy off of him.

"I'm so glad you're okay! I heard the alarms and I panicked. I thought they had caught you." Kid Flash spoke without pauses, the words seemingly flying out of his mouth of their own accord. "I was so worried, I was just blindly running around this place trying to find you. I had no idea where you were or if you were okay."

"I'm fine. Apparently Red Arrow decided to make an entrance, he's the one who set off the alarms." The raven haired preteen said as he dragged KF out of the hallway and back into the room. He shut the door behind them and walked back to the computer. Wally followed behind him, confused.

"What? Why is he here?"

"Batman assured me that he wouldn't tell Red Arrow, or our team, what our mission was to stop them from blowing our cover, so he has to be here for a different reason. I have no idea what that reason might be, though." Robin answered as he continued searching the database for the folder on 'Project: Brainiac'.

"I guess." Wally paused. "Look, Rob, I'm sorry. You're the leader on this mission and I should've followed your plan."

Robin swivelled his chair towards Kid Flash and looked him in the eyes. He let out a long breath before replying.

"I'm sorry too. You were right, I should have listened to you. This place isn't safe for civilians. Thank you for getting them out of here."

Wally nodded, before he hesitantly added. "On the way out we ran into some guys. I knocked them out, but they had a cart full of dismembered children. I think they were the missing kids from camp." The speedster tried, and failed, to keep his voice even and calm. "They were going to use corrosives on the bodies to hide the evidence."

Robin growled. "I'm going to enjoy watching Luthor rot in jail for this."

The green eyed boy grunted in agreement.

"I'm almost done getting this file on 'Project: Brainiac', can you try to find Red Arrow on the security cameras?"

Wally sat down next to him and pulled the camera's footage up onto a different monitor. With lightning speed Wally searched through the hundreds of cameras looking for Roy. They worked in relative silence, the alarm fading into the background as they focused on their tasks.

After a couple of minutes Wally stopped on a specific camera and paused the feed.

"Hey, Rob? How sure are you that Batman didn't say anything to the team?"

"He gave me his word. Why?"

He said nothing, turning his monitor to face Robin.

"You have got to be kidding me." Robin groaned as he looked at the frozen image of the team sneaking into the building.

* * *

The door splintered into pieces seconds after Roy's boot collided with it. He stepped through the hole that used to be a door and was greeted with a strange sight.

He was standing at the beginning of a metal catwalk that overlooked the room below. The laboratory that sprawled out beneath his feet was massive, filled with swarms of grey suited men in welding masks and guards with guns. The catwalk seemed to jut out of the walls as it wrapped around the perimeter of the lab. The alarm had been turned off in this room and the walls were bathed in the typical fluorescent glow. 

In the centre of the room below was a large object covered by a sheet, which wouldn't have caught his interest if Lex Luthor hadn't been standing directly in front of it.

It seemed as though time had stopped as all the people below stared at him.

"Well, it seems as though we've found the source of that infernal alarm." Lex drawled, breaking the silence. "Broken Arrow." He said in a bored manner.

"Doesn't work anymore, Q-tip." Roy growled.

"Worth a shot." Luthor smirked and gestured to his guards. "Open fire, boys."

In seconds every gun in the room was pointed directly at the young red head. Red Arrow threw himself to the side, dodging the incoming hail of bullets. He rolled as he hit the catwalk, popping back up into a crouch with an arrow already notched. He fired at the ground floor, aiming for the center of a large group of Luthor's men.

The arrow lodged itself into the floor below, instantly letting out an earsplitting screech. Red Arrow hurriedly shoved wax into his ears to stop the horrible noise but the guards had nothing to block the sound out. Their hands covered their ears, guns forgotten on the floor below, trying in vain to smother the screeching. The men closest to the arrow collapsed to the floor unconscious.

Luthor fell to the ground in agony. Two red lines of blood ran down his face as his ears ruptured. Red Arrow watched the business man squirm with a grim sense of satisfaction.

Using his distraction wisely, Roy fired all of the sedative arrows in his quiver at the people below. He picked off the people with the most effective firearms, easily grazing them in their prone forms. He felled over half of Luthor's forces before he ran out of the laced arrows. He made a mental note to collect them after the fight, they weren't cheap after all and he was on a budget.

He vaulted over the metal railing, landing in a crouch on the floor below. His knees protested the jump as he stood up and he hid a wince as he started walking. Jumping down a story might not have been the smartest thing to do, but the rage that built up in him after seeing Luthor prevented him from being rational.

He glanced over at his 'Canary' arrow; It was named after Black Canary because she was the inspiration behind using sound waves as a weapon. The light on the side was flickering. That meant that it would run out of power in seconds.

Roy pulled out another arrow while looking around at the sea of armed guards. 

He would make those seconds count.


End file.
